Shifting to Shared Wheels: Factors Affecting Dockless Bike-Sharing Choice for Short and Long Trips

Abstract

In this paper, we explore users’ intentions to use bike-sharing systems (BSS) compared to traditional competitive transport modes—private car, bus and walking. Fueled by the increasingly rampant growth of shared economy and Information and Communication Technology (ICT), shared mobility is gaining increasing traction. The numbers of shared mobility schemes are rapidly growing worldwide and are accompanied by changes in the traditional vehicle ownership model. In order to pinpoint the factors that strongly affect the willingness to use BSS, a stated preference survey among car and bus users as well as pedestrians was designed and conducted. Binary logit models of the choice between the currently preferred transportation modes and BSSs were developed, for short and long-duration trips, respectively. The results highlight a distinctive set of factors and patterns affecting the willingness to adopt bike-sharing: choice is most sensitive to travel time and cost of the competitive travel options. In general, users are more willing to make the switch to a BSS, especially for short trip durations, when their typical mode of transport becomes more expensive. Bike-sharing also seems to be a more attractive option for certain user socio-demographic groups per mode and trip duration (age, education level, employment status, household income). Trip characteristics such as trip purpose and frequency were also found to affect the willingness to choose BSS. In general, BSS seem to mainly attract bus users and pedestrians, while car users may use BSS more sparingly, mainly for commuting purposes.