Life Cycle Assessment of Free-Floating Bike Sharing on Greenhouse Gas Emissions: A Case Study in Nanjing, China

Ruxin Lai,Xinwei Ma,Yanjie Ji,Fan Zhang

doi:10.3390/app112311307

Ruxin Lai, Xinwei Ma + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/app112311307

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Abstract

The free-floating bike sharing (FFBS) system appears in the form of low-carbon transport mode. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a method to analyze the environmental impact of FFBS but has rarely considered the trip chain if the intermodal transport modes were employed. This paper proposes a mathematical formalization of LCA in response to the trip chain. The environmental benefit of FFBS was analyzed by this method considering the production, use, operation, and disposal phases in Nanjing. An online survey was conducted to analyze the mechanism of modal shift influenced by FFBS. The results showed that most respondents only use FFBS in the trip, with savings of 63.726 g CO2-eq/p·km, mainly shifting from lower-emission modes (28.30% from bus, 14.86% from metro, and 33.97% from non-motorized modes), while the trip mode of connecting public transport with FFBS could better replace the motorized transport trip and generate better low-carbon benefits with savings of 300.718 g CO2-eq/p·km. One FFBS should be used for at least 227 days to generate positive environmental benefits based on the current number of FFBS and the assumption of the utilization of each bike, which is once a day on average. The research results can effectively support the environmental benefit analysis of FFBS, the subsequent planning based on the low-carbon concept, and the implementation of relevant incentive policies.

Highlights

The energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of China’s transportation sector account for a large proportion of the total national energy consumption.the transport sector must achieve low-carbon development transformation as soon as possible in the context of a global response to climate change [1,2]
The goal of this study was to investigate what pattern of Free-floating bike sharing (FFBS) is applied in a trip chain, and what kind of transport mode is usually abandoned by users to ride FFBS
Most samples were made up of young people, which could be explained by the physical constraints of those who are over 45 years old

Summary

Introduction

The transport sector must achieve low-carbon development transformation as soon as possible in the context of a global response to climate change [1,2]. In this sense, the concept of a smart city has been applied to address the challenges, such as pollution, congestion, and lack of social infrastructure [3,4,5], to make cities more efficient, sustainable, equitable, and livable [6,7,8]. Two widely used patterns of FFBS are direct use and connection with public transport in a trip chain [25]

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