Review on public bike share schemes in large developing cities: A case study of Delhi, India

Abstract

In recent years bike share schemes have become increasingly popular in developing countries. Many cities have initiated bike-sharing schemes to promote sustainable mobility, increase bicycle usage, and enhance public transport's first and last-mile connectivity options. During the last few years, India also experienced a boom in bike-sharing schemes. However, unlike developed countries in Europe and America, limited research is available on bike-share schemes in developing countries like India. As a result, these countries face many problems in planning, designing, and operating bike-share schemes. This article considered Delhi a case study to address some of these problems and contribute to India's knowledge of bike-share schemes. The study considered different bike-share scheme operations in Delhi to analyse the bike-share characteristics and evaluate their impact on bike-share usage and ridership. Further, spatial analysis of bike-share schemes was also conducted to analyse the accessibility of bike stations to other facilities such as public transport systems, points of interest and their impact on bike-share usage and ridership. Moreover, a user-based survey was conducted to understand bike-share users' socioeconomic, trip characteristics, and preferences. Furthermore, a swot analysis was conducted to explore the city's strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for operating bike-share schemes. Finally, based on the evaluation of bike-share schemes in Delhi, the study proposed various planning and policy-level recommendations to improve the bike-sharing schemes in similar size cities in developing countries like India.