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The benefits of intermodal integration in improving transit ridership and making the entire transport chain low carbon are of interest to developed countries and emerging economies alike. In addition to good walking and cycling infrastructure to access the transit, cities across the globe are investing in bike share systems to enhance PT coverage and attractiveness. More than 700 cities of the world have invested in bike-share (BS) systems. Faced with increasing congestion, pollution and accidents as a result of the increasing motorization, Indian cities are also making a sustained effort to invest in walking, cycling, and public transit infrastructure. An attractive solution, especially with the Smart Cities’ agenda, is that of bikes share systems in the larger cities. One of the problems in bike share systems’ design is the estimation of the potential demand for the service, especially in Indian cities where these types of systems have not yet been implemented.
The main objective of this research was to examine the relevance of Bike Share (BS) system, assess the benefits and key variables of mode choice of BS system. Furthermore, the study aimed to quantitatively analyze the mode shift variables, assess the mode shift and use this mode shift to derive benefits to the individual and the city. The study used a case study approach for the quantitative assessment of the mode shift and BS system benefits in the specified area i.e., city municipal boundary.
This research develops a demand estimation methodology for estimating the mode shift to bike share (BS) systems in India, using the case study of Pune, a city in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. While the literature review established that the choice of individual users to shift to a bike share system (if provided) is influenced by a number of socio-economic characteristics like gender, age, income, vehicle availability et al. and trip making characteristics like distance, time, cost and purpose of access and main line haul trips, the binary logistic analysis conducted in the case study shows that the significant predictors are more limited and actually vary depending on whether the mode shift is for an access trip, a short trip or will lead to usage of transit because of the provision of bike-share systems. The empirical research concludes that there will be mode shift, especially for short trips, from different personal motorized modes and public transit to BS system if a BS system is implemented in a mid-size city like Pune.
The research also presents an evaluation framework using validated indicators to analyze the benefits of integrating bike share systems with transit systems in India. The results from the city level primary data analysis used to develop the framework to illustrate how integrating bike share with public transit systems (Bus system in Pune) can realize these benefits for the city and users. The analysis has shown significant reduction in pollution (1 to 78%), congestion (-1 to 20%), fuel consumption (1 to 80%), parking demand (1 to 54%) and investment in MV infrastructure (1-53%) in the city, if the BS system is available for short trips (0-5km) and integration with existing public transit system.
The research concludes that while the BS system is envisaged as the last mile to the public transit (PT) with the objective of increasing PT ridership and it does show some impact of long-distance commuters shifting from personal vehicles to the BS+PT system, a much more significant impact is seen in the shifting of the short trips from other modes to BS (as primary mode). This is intuitively correct because the city of Pune is a mid-sized city and its trip length frequency distribution does show that a majority of its trips are within cyclable distance and only a few are long enough to have the potential to shift to PT. Clearly investing in a city-wide bike share system will have a higher impact in attaining sustainable mode shares than investing in a PT system for a city of the size of Pune.
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