The impact of urban road pricing on the use of bike sharing

Abstract

We empirically analyse the effect of road pricing on the use of bike sharing. We exploit two sudden policy changes in Milan's congestion pricing scheme resulting in a shift from priced to unpriced road use: a temporary suspension of the scheme in 2012, and a durable reduction in its application schedule. We find that the sudden removal of road pricing decreases bike-sharing use by about 5%. The policy impact mainly occurs through the increase of road traffic congestion, which makes cycling less safe and pleasant. The reduction in the schedule leads to an 8% decline in bike-sharing use in the affected time window. Our findings indicate that policies inducing drivers to internalise the external costs of car use also promote the uptake of non-polluting transport modes. This widens the spectrum of benefits that need to be considered in the design and implementation of road pricing policies.