Dynamic Feedback Analysis of Influencing Factors and Challenges of Dockless Bike-Sharing Sustainability in China

Abstract

Dockless bike-sharing programs (DBSPs) are typical representatives of the new era of the internet economy. These schemes alleviate urban traffic congestion, reduce carbon emissions, and change people’s preferred travel modes, but they also suffer from a series of problems related to unsustainability. The sustainability performance of a DBSP is closely related to its influencing factors, which can be used to understand the main challenges of the program and consider what useful measures should be taken to overcome these issues. Therefore, it is essential to investigate the related factors that are critical to the sustainability of DBSPs from a systems-level perspective. In this paper, we explored publicly available data sources (i.e., literature, institutional reports, and announcements) to determine the intrinsic influencing factors and understand their interactions and feedback relationships. A taxonomy of the key challenges with respect to the fundamental pillars of DBSP sustainability (i.e., environment, society, and economy) was provided. System dynamics methodology was employed to map the critical factors and links in order to analyze the key challenges in facilitating the sustainability of DBSPs. Based on this approach, we put forward proposals to mitigate the severe challenges for governments and DBSP operators. The findings provide a theoretical basis and guiding role to develop improvement strategies for DBSP sustainability.

External Environmental Analysis for Sustainable Bike-Sharing System Development

“…The scientific literature provides elaborations of macro-environmental factors influencing transport systems with PESTEL method by Belwal [72], PEST method [73], STEEPLE method [74], and with SWOT analysis [75]. The research of SWOT analysis of bicycle systems can be found in the works of Ma et al [76], Mátrai and Tóth [77], Guyandi et al [78], and Yang et al [79], who investigated the connected factors that are essential to the sustainability of FFBS programs. The gap of knowledge identified is that there is a lack of scientific research that analyses macro-environmental groups of factors and their mutual influence in the BSS.…”

System Dynamics Modeling for a Public–Private Partnership Program to Promote Bicycle–Metro Integration Based on Evolutionary Game

“…The research about bike-share is abundant and growing rapidly. Previous studies may be summarized into the following topics: history, growth and challenges of bike-sharing ( 29 ), determinants ( 30 – 32 ), users’ travel patterns ( 33 – 35 ), demand forecasting ( 36 – 38 ), bicycle redistribution issues ( 39 , 40 ), and infrastructure enhancements ( 41 , 42 ). Fishman suggested “improved public transport integration” as one of the most important future directions in the bike-share literature ( 43 ).…”

The Spatial Effect of Shared Mobility on Urban Traffic Congestion: Evidence from Chinese Cities

“…Wang and Zhou [33] adopted a difference-indifference model to achieve similar results by using panel data from 96 cities in the United States. However, with the rapid development of shared bicycles in China, a series of unsustainable issues have been exposed in Chinese cities, including oversupply of BS, discretionary parking and illegal cycling; and inadequate regulations and market supervision [34]. Mitra et al [35] also found that the presence of public bicycles has not changed the mode of transportation for most people, and it is very unlikely that young people will switch from automobiles to bicycle riding.…”