Evaluation of Potential Contribution of Dockless Bike-sharing Service to Sustainable and Efficient Urban Mobility in China

Abstract

China has recently experienced the rapid development of a new generation of bike-sharing service, namely dockless bike-sharing service (DBS). Though previous studies indicated that bike-sharing is associated with various social, environmental, and economic benefits, unintended adverse outcomes of DBS that constitute public nuisance also have been reported. Thus, it is necessary to assess the DBS effects on urban transport sustainability for strategic decisions on its further developments. This study is focused on the evaluation of environment-, public- and individual user-interest related effects of DBS, in terms of efficient resource utilization by sharing, Green House Gas (GHG) emission reduction, urban transport efficiency enhancement, public space occupation and individual cost-savings. The assessment models of DBS's resource demand and GHG emission, user transport time and cost, road and roadside parking space demand allocated in the functional unit of transporting one passenger for one kilometre are developed. Economic value models of the reduced resources demand, GHG emissions, transport time, and the occupied public space are then proposed for scaling DBS's overall benefits. A scenario model is developed to describe the DBS scheme and the benefits analysis's social-economic backgrounds. The case study of Shanghai, the largest DBS market nationwide, is presented to enrich the knowledge about DBS schemes in China, their potential contribution to urban transport sustainability, and implications for public administration, operation management and user behaviour guidance. The proposed assessment models can be applied to studies on DBS schemes in other China contexts to provide some comparisons and a more comprehensive understanding of its effects.