Travel Behavior Change after the Introduction of Public Bicycle Systems: Case Study in Minhang District, Shanghai

摘要

The paper presents the first step of a series research on the characteristics of publicbicycle users’ travel behavior and the underlying mechanisms to support the development ofpublic bicycle systems (PBS) in China. Based on a questionnaire survey in Minhang District,Shanghai, the paper focuses on travel behavior change after the introduction of the PBS. Usingstatistical analyses, it is found that people travel slightly more often than before when using PB;their travel distances are longer than expected. However, most users ride PB as a replacement ofpublic transit, walking and private bicycle. Few modal shifts happened from car andmoped/motocycle. Convenience contributes most to people’s modal shift to PB, much more thanthe second and third most important factors, saving time and exercising, which is furtherconfirmed by estimating a binary logit model explaining modal choice behavior between PB andother transport modes. The estimated travel utility gain based on the model turns out to besignificant. The charging experiment reveals that charging PB rental fee can reduce PB useextensively, much more than compensating for long distance ride.