"NEXT month a so-called "brand new means of transport" will be
launched in Copenhagen: the bicycle. GoBike, Europe's latest
bike-sharing scheme, will have bicycles with built-in tablet computers
that direct cyclists to the best local restaurants, show offers in
nearby shops and give the latest train times. Bike-sharing is shifting
up a gear: it seems that nearly every self-respecting mayor is either
developing a scheme or announcing an expansion to one. What is the
impact on cities' development?
Bike-sharing began in the 1960s
when 50 "free bikes" were scattered around Amsterdam. They were promptly
stolen. But after this slow start bike-sharing has blossomed. Over the
past decade the number of schemes has increased tenfold. Bike-sharing
ventures now exist in more than 500 cities,
from Dubai to Hawaii. Each works on the simple principle that a user
can borrow a bike at a docking station and then return it to another.
The first 30 minutes are usually free. The most successful schemes have
large fleets of bikes, lots of small docking stations and a few
"superdocks" in busy places, such as train stations. Electronic
monitoring of the bikes can show ebbs and flows of bike traffic through
cities, allowing better distribution of bikes and planning of new docks.
Just
as mass public transport changed the development of cities' suburbs,
bike-hire schemes are now shaping city centres in subtle ways. A
"cycling census" in London found that in the morning rush-hours nearly
half of all northbound traffic crossing three of the city's main bridges
was made up of cyclists. Planners have responded by criss-crossing the
city with cycle-paths; more are proposed. Some mayors are experimenting
with bike-only days: Mexico City, the unlikely home of a highly popular bike-hire scheme,
closes its central eight-lane highway to cars every Sunday, to the rage
of motorists. Property developers are taking note, too: just as houses
near metro stations tend to command higher prices, research now suggests
that access to cycle paths and proximity to docking points is linked to
higher rents. Finally, bike-sharing opens up parts of cities that were
previously hard to access by public transport, especially late at night
when bus and train services get thinner. Research by Susan Shaheen at
the University of California, Berkeley, found that in Montreal and
Toronto four out of ten people shopped more at locations near bike
stations. In Washington, DC, more than eight out of ten said they were
more likely to visit a business, shop or restaurant with easy access to
bike-sharing dock.
Just as researchers begin to grasp the impact
of bike-sharing, the schemes themselves continue to evolve at speed. New
developments include much cheaper "dockless" bikes, already in use in
Berlin, which can be found by mobile phone. Another promising
development is the introduction of electric bikes, for longer or steeper
journeys. Such innovations could help broaden the appeal of bike-share
schemes beyond their current users, who are mainly young, relatively
well-off men. Bike sharing is just one part of a broader movement
towards alternative forms of transport in increasingly crowded cities,
but it could be an important one. As last year’s United States
Conference of Mayors concluded: "communities that have invested in
pedestrian and bicycle projects have benefited from improved quality of
life, healthier population, greater local real-estate values, more local
travel choices, and reduced air pollution." Time for more of the world
to go Dutch."
