The Barriers of Bike Sharing System in Ipoh City

Abstract

The Bike-sharing systems are popular in most developed countries worldwide, including France, London, Germany, China, Belgium, Mexico, and Brazil. The system benefits the community because users do not have to purchase their bikes. There are many suppliers providing bicycle rental systems for community use in Malaysia, including Obike and Mobike. However, the implementation of this system was not successful because users prefer to use motorized transport. This study aims to identify the barriers that prevent users from using the bike-sharing system. Ten factors have been identified as the most dominant factors that prevent users from switching motor transport to bike-sharing systems. This study used random sampling research; 178 respondents have given feedback from 200 distributed forms. The data analysis method used is the Average Index. Based on the result, the highest average index recorded at the value of >4.00 is the weather condition (heat and rain) that has dampened the interest for cycling with an average score of 4.71. That is followed by distance from home to town, which is too far for cycling with an average of 4.57 points. Meanwhile, the third-highest value is that it takes too long to reach the destination with bicycles with an average score of 4.43. This result, then, can imply the number and location of bicycle rental should be increased. Besides that, more trees and shrubs should be planted to improve urban greenery so that the city is more shaded and cooler to attract commuters to cycle.