When cycling again - Comparison of safety behaviors of between cyclists of shared, private and public bike in China

Abstract

Although great convenience has been brought to hundred millions of commuters by bike sharing schemes in recent year in China, safety issues of shared bikes received a lot of concerns. The ever rising number of cyclists make the investigation of safety in riding shared bike an imminent task. We compare the accidents and safety events rate between cyclists of different shared bikes and private bikes, as well as the safety relevant behavior, such as compliance to traffic regulations, and violations like calling mobiles while riding. The survey results indicated that cyclists of commercial shared bike reported more safety incidents, compared to cyclists of private bike and public shared bike, and that cyclists of commercial shared bike also reported more malfunction in brakes and worse maintenance of bikes. However, no significant differences in wearing protection equipment between different bike cyclists. And cyclists of commercial shared bike indicate higher propensity to check information to assist bike riding. Our findings that cyclists of commercial shared bike reported more safety incidents more problems in brakes and worse maintenance may provide suggestions for practitioners in the field.