Sharing and Riding: How the Dockless Bike Sharing Scheme in China Shapes the City

Urban Science

Sun, Yiyun¹ 

[1] Erusmus Mundus PLANET Europe Joint Master Program, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6525 HP Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Cardiff University, CF10 3AT, Cardiff, UK

关键词: bike sharing;    sustainable mobility;    sharing economic;    urban studies;   

DOI  :  10.3390/urbansci2030068

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Over the last three years, the dockless bike sharing scheme has become prevalent in the context of the boom in the sharing economy, the wide use of mobile online payment, the increasing environmental awareness and the inherent market demand. This research takes Beijing as a case study, investigates the users’ characteristics, their behaviour change, and perceptions of dockless bike sharing scheme by the quantitative survey, and then analyzes the reasons behind it and how it has changed the residents’ life in Beijing. This new kind of dockless shared bikes, with great advantages of accessibility, flexibility, efficiency and affordability, helps to solve the ‘last mile’ problem, reduce the travel time, and seems to be very environmentally-friendly and sustainable. However, with the help of interview and document analysis, this research finds that the shared bikes are not the effective alternative for the frequent car-users. Nevertheless, it also has numerous negative consequences such as ‘zombie’ bikes blocking the sidewalks and vandalism to the bikes. The public is also worried about their quality and safety, especially the issues of ‘right of way’. How to coordinate and solve these problems is not only related to the future direction of the dockless bike sharing scheme but also to the vital interests of the general public. Therefore, it is important to emphasize that governments, enterprises, and the public participate in multi-party cooperation and build synergic governance networks to carry forward the advantages and avoid the negative effects of the new bike sharing system.

【 授权许可】

CC BY