Pedal or Park: Why People Choose Bike-Sharing

October 3, 2024

The number of bike-sharing programs has exploded in large cities over the past decade. Of the 20 largest cities in the world, the vast majority have bike-sharing systems.

In all, there are at least 2,000 bike-sharing programs worldwide, according to the Bike-Sharing World Map. These programs have been bolstered by the addition of e-bikes and e-scooters, which often get labeled together using the term shared micro-mobility.

The growth in bike-sharing programs could reduce traffic congestion in urban centers. Encouraging people to use them could also reduce greenhouse gas emissions if they choose micro-mobility over a trip in an automobile.

Besides being too lazy to walk, what makes people participate in a shared bike program when they have other options, like cars or public transportation?

Choosing Bike Share

A significant amount of research has already been done on the factors driving bike share use, looking at factors that include demographics, the perception of safety, weather, access to public transportation and distance.The studies have found that the likelihood of using micro-mobility was highest for travels to universities or colleges and sporting events.

One study of Zurich’s shared micro-mobility services found that users are typically young, male, university-educated professionals who are gainfully employed and live in affluent single-person households without children or cars.

Bored with Cars? Try an E-Bike

While research into the use of bike sharing programs is fairly robust, many of the studies don’t take into account the rise of electric bicycles and users’ choices between e-scooters, e-bike and regular bicycles. A recent article in IEEE Access explores those choices.

The research, which focused on users in Budapest, found that people preferred traditional bicycles over e-bicycles by a slim margin and e-bikes over electric scooters. The highest likelihood of switching from a conventional bicycle to an e-bike occurred when travel time or travel distance increased by 20%

One group showed a consistent preference for e-bikes: people that owned cars.

The most common reason to use the system was leisure, rather than a trip to work or school.

Safety A Factor

When bicycles travel on roads, they often do so alongside cars, which likely acts as a deterrent to increased use of bikes in urban environments.

“Cities can improve safety by designing dedicated bicycle lanes and e-scooter lanes to keep cyclists and e-scooter users away from motor vehicle lanes,” said IEEE Fellow Guoliang Xing.

IEEE Member Bilin Aksun-Guvenc said that integrating micro-mobility use with public transit adoption could also increase adoption. “Seamless integration of public transportation with microtransit in the form of bicycles (including electric ones) and e-scooters will increase their useful range,” Aksun-Guvenc said.

This means that it should be easy to carry your bicycle and e-scooter on public buses, trains and subways.”