Succeeding without success: Demonstrating a residential bicycle sharing system in Sweden

Evaluating the Efficiency of Bike-Sharing Stations with Data Envelopment Analysis

“…Despite the wide-ranging possible benefits and the global popularity of BSSs, there have been cases of financial or operational failures that were mostly caused by mismanagement or under-designed implementations of these systems [14]. Due to inflexible standardized business models or lack of strategies tailored to the local context, such systems typically face issues such as underuse, misplaced bicycles, vandalism and theft, unusable or dysfunctional devices, impractical or unreliable service, sluggish expansion, and lack of adequate cycling infrastructure [15,16].…”

“…Due to inflexible standardized business models or lack of strategies tailored to the local context, such systems typically face issues such as underuse, misplaced bicycles, vandalism and theft, unusable or dysfunctional devices, impractical or unreliable service, sluggish expansion, and lack of adequate cycling infrastructure [15,16]. Previous studies in a Swedish context suggest that the pressure to deliver a commercially viable and profitable service presents challenges to the success of BSSs as it may result in creating sociotechnical configurations that fall short in delivering long-term sustainability benefits [14]. Other studies highlight public acceptance as another relevant factor for the success of BSSs in both Swedish [5] and global contexts [16].…”