Implementing bike-sharing systems

The last decade has seen a substantial increase in the perception of the bicycle as a realistic transport alternative to the car. Bicycle-sharing schemes are now a reality in many European cities. They can be large scale or small scale and their use is clearly on the increase. The sharing systems are initially free and then start to charge in order to cover the system running costs and the maintenance of the bicycles. This paper proposes a complete methodology for introducing bike-sharing systems. A methodology is proposed for calculating the potential demand for bicycle use and the willingness to pay of future users for faster journey times, as well as a location model for fixing the bicycle pick-up and drop-off stations made with the help of a geographical information system. The proposed methodology determines the personal profile of the system users, the maximum tariffs to charge in order to guarantee a good take-up, the best system to introduce and the optimum locations of the docking stations, which will depend on certain predetermined criteria.