Mobile bicycle sharing: the social trend that could change how we move
Authors: Ding Ding, Yingnan Jia, Klaus Gebel
Journal: The Lancet Public Health (2018)

Tackling the global pandemic of physical inactivity requires scalable interventions across many sectors, disciplines, and the whole of society.1Reis RS Salvo D Ogilvie D Lambert EV Goenka S Brownson RC Scaling up physical activity interventions worldwide: stepping up to larger and smarter approaches to get people moving.Lancet. 2016; 388: 1337-1348Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (396) Google Scholar Active travel by cycling provides opportunities for health-enhancing population-level physical activity, while conveying additional benefits, such as reduced traffic congestion, and air and noise pollution, and improved liveability for communities. China, once considered a kingdom of bicycles, has seen a substantial decrease in population-level cycling due to economic growth and the booming car industry. For example, from 2002 to 2010–12, the proportion of the Chinese population who reported walking as their main mode of transportation decreased from 30·7% to 22·5%, and for cycling the proportion decreased from 35·8% to 15·6%, whereas the proportion who reported motorised transport as their main mode of transportation increased from 33·5% to 61·9%.2Gong W-Y Feng G-Y Yuan F Ding C-C Zhang Y Liu A-l Analysis of the changing trends in transportation modes and time among the Chinese non-agricultural professional population in 2002 and 2010–2012.Acta Nutrimenta Sinica. 2017; 39 (in Chinese).: 327-331Google Scholar In 2016, a new trend of mobile public-bicycle sharing that did not require docking stations emerged in China, led by companies such as Mobike and Ofo. Users can identify a nearby available bicycle with a smartphone app via the bicycle's inbuilt Global Positioning System (GPS), then once they have completed their journey they can leave the bike anywhere and pay for the ride (at a low rate) by smartphone. This new bicycle-sharing concept has become increasingly popular. For example, within a year of launching mobile public-bike sharing in Shanghai, China, more than 13 million users were registered and more than 1 million shared bicycles were available in the city.3Shanghai now has more than one million shared bicycles with more than 13 million registered users (in Chinese).http://sh.xinhuanet.com/2017-06/14/c_136363633.htmGoogle Scholar Innovative mobile public-bike-sharing programmes have the potential to bring cycling back to China. On the basis of GPS travel data from their bikes and a survey of more than 100 000 Mobike users, by April 2017—less than a year after the company's launch in Shanghai, China—Mobike Global estimated that of all journeys made by their users, the percentage of journeys by bicycle had increased from 5·5% to 11·6% (with the majority of journeys done to link with buses and trains) and the number of car journeys had halved.4Mobike GlobalThe Mobike white paper: bike-share in the city. Mobike, Shanghai2017https://mobike.com/sg/blog/post/mobikewhitepaperGoogle Scholar However, mobile public-bike-sharing programmes without docking stations are inherently subject to vandalism, misuse, and loss of bicycles.5Nikitas A Bike-sharing fiascos and how to avoid them – an expert's guide.The Conversation. Nov 29, 2017; (accessed April 9, 2018).https://theconversation.com/bike-sharing-fiascoes-and-how-to-avoid-them-an-experts-guide-84926Google Scholar Cluttering of footpaths with bicycles and increasing traffic violations by cyclists have also been frequently reported. Despite the problems and challenges, mobile public-bike-sharing programmes exemplify an alignment between private-sector interests and public health and sustainability, and offer unique opportunities to promote physical activity on a large scale. By the end of 2017, mobile public-bike-sharing programmes had spread to hundreds of cities across Asia, Europe, North America, and Australia. If continuous business innovation and technological advancement are coupled with government support for mobile public-bike sharing, investments in cycling infrastructure, and appropriate regulations and protective mechanisms to encourage responsible bicycle use, mobile public-bike-sharing programmes are likely to lead to long-term changes in commuting culture and physical activity around the world. We have no competing interests. Scaling up physical activity interventions worldwide: stepping up to larger and smarter approaches to get people movingThe global pandemic of physical inactivity requires a multisectoral, multidisciplinary public-health response. Scaling up interventions that are capable of increasing levels of physical activity in populations across the varying cultural, geographic, social, and economic contexts worldwide is challenging, but feasible. In this paper, we review the factors that could help to achieve this. We use a mixed-methods approach to comprehensively examine these factors, drawing on the best available evidence from both evidence-to-practice and practice-to-evidence methods. Full-Text PDF