Bike Share System in Hangzhou, China

Following up on Chris' post on the theme of bicycles, I thought I would provide this video (thank you to my friend, DS, for sharing it with me) about a very successful public bike share system in Hangzhou, China that is paving the way for green transportation.

The video above provides all the details, anecdotes and statistics about the system so I'll leave the video to satisfy your curiosity. However, from a planning and development perspective, there are a couple of things worth mentioning.

One, bike share programs are especially useful as an inter-model transit strategy meaning that citizens might rent a bike to travel to a transit station where they could then park the bike at the bike share parking facility located at the transit station,  hop on transit and walk to their final destination. The bike share parking stations are meant to be close to other transit modes to help people effectively transition when making a journey. Further, they are also located near residential complexes and busy streets. Bikes in general are wonderful for commuting but bike share programs help alleviate fears about bicycle theft and allow people to integrate them effectively into their traveling.

The Hangzhou story is also promising considering the great fall of cycling China over the past 20 years. Indeed, according to some sources, "just ten years ago there were 500 million cyclists in China. The bike was emperor of the roads. It was the only way to go and the fastest way to get there. But whereas two thirds of families traveled by bike in the 90's, it is only 20% today. Bike ownership in cities has plummeted by 25% in the past five years".

There are researchers in my graduate program who are particularly interested in reviving bicycling in China. You can view their abstract here which focuses on Beijing.  This is a significant problem in China as cycling, a once dominant mode of transportation, is being pushed aside by the car which brings with it a series of factors including convenience, social/economic status, flexibility and more.

It's reassuring to know that some places in China such as Hangzhou and Guangzhou are moving forward with popular and affordable transportation programs to improve the livability and sustainability of their cities.