Unveiling Women’s Needs and Expectations as Users of Bike Sharing Services: The H2020 DIAMOND Project

Abstract

Within the objectives of the H2020 DIAMOND project, the paper investigates women’s needs and expectations as users of the bike-sharing service managed by Syndicat Mixte Autolib et Velib Métropole in the territory of Paris Region-Petite Couronne (France). The paper presents a thematic literature review focused on gender inclusion in bike-sharing schemes. The proposed methodological approach is based on (i) Geographic Information Systems for the analysis of geolocated open datasets related to land, sociodemographic and mobility characteristics of the areas surrounding each docking stations. This was aimed at identifying a short list of suitable bike-sharing docking stations, which were further characterized through: (ii) structured proprietary data focused on travel demand; (iii) onsite observations focused on universal design indicators; (iv) survey questionnaires focused on women’s concerns, needs and expectations; and (v) social media data from Twitter focused on the opinion of the end-users. Results showed that women use the VELIB’s bike-sharing service much less than men (about 30% of the total number of users), since they are more concerned about the following issues: accessibility (e.g., availability of bikes at the docking stations, distance to the nearest station, type and quality of the cycle paths); safety and security (e.g., perception of danger and insecurity while cycling and using the current bicycle infrastructures); social constraints (e.g., perceptions and cultural stigmatization associated with cycling and bike-sharing); weather and topography (e.g., impact of weather and the urban terrain on cycling and bike-sharing). The final aim of the H2020 DIAMOND project is to support the definition of guidelines and policies for the inclusion of women’s needs in the design of future bike-sharing services.

Tripartite Dynamic Game among Government, Bike-Sharing Enterprises, and Consumers under the Influence of Seasons and Quota

“…Some studies have also studied the needs and expectations of women as consumers of bike-sharing services from the perspective of gender. The results show that far fewer women than men use Velib bike-sharing services (approximately 30% of the total number of consumers), supporting the definition of incorporating women's needs into the guidelines and policies for the design of future bike-sharing services [26].…”

Gender perceptions of active mobility: Insights from three European cities

“…Men choose this mode mainly for their daily travel, while women consider it for their recreation journeys over the weekend (García-Jiménez et al, 2020). An interesting study conducted by DIAMOND project in Paris, showed that only about 30% of city bike-sharing system users are women (Gorrini et al, 2021). The analysis results demonstrate the factors influencing their choice: accessibility, safety and security, social constraints, weather and topography.…”

Active travel infrastructure design and implementation: Insights from behavioral science

“…One analysis of 10 million journeys on a bike‐share scheme in London showed that women preferentially select routes with slower traffic and those that are offset from major roads (Beecham et al, 2014; Mitra & Nash, 2017). The primary issue with the available evidence is that, while gender gaps have been identified, there has been little consideration of gendered processes underlying the differences, such as social norms (Gorrini et al, 2021) or the greater complexity of travel patterns required by women due to their typically larger share of household responsibilities (Ravensbergen et al, 2019). One analysis of travel patterns in New Zealand showed that women indeed tend to use more diverse routes (Shaw et al, 2020), potentially reflecting women's greater propensity to engage in multi‐purpose trips (Craig & van Tienoven, 2019).…”