Bicycle sharing in Asia: a stakeholder perception and possible futures

Abstract

Despite public bicycle sharing programs (PBSP) gaining global attention as important climate smart transport strategy to support sustainable, low carbon societies in European and North American cities, its uptake in Asia, except for China, has been unexpectedly limited. Moreover, while existing schemes in other regions could provide a better understanding about bicycle sharing, the need to improve our understanding of PBSP’s role in catering for the local transportation mobility and accessibility needs and requirements as well as identifying strategies to make PBSP better adapted to local Asian condition is in order. To date, there has been limited information and analytics to inform low-carbon local planning especially from the perspective of variious individuals. To address this gap, this paper aims to advance our understanding of bike sharing schemes in Asia by examining motivators, constraints and opportunities, and their contribution towards achieving sustainable urban mobility outcomes. Using a survey-based research design approach, this study examines the perception of various individuals on the perceived benefits, and identify factors which have facilitated or constrained the implementation of PBSP. In essence, results show that technical constraints were perceived to be the most restrictive and dominant barriers while there is general consensus that different types of facilitators support bikeshare implementation; also, environmental benefits top the list of benefits while the lowest scorer is economic benefit, providing vital and important information to inform design, marketing and communication strategies for PBSP implementation within the Asian setting. This paper enhances our understanding of the challenges involved in bikeshare implementation as a first step in planning for a smarter society. It also attempts to build the evidence base to comprehend the localization of bike sharing schemes. Understanding how PBSP can be locally implemented can have long-term positive effects through creating a cycling culture and changing peoples’ travel behaviors.

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