Bicycle sharing in India

Abstract

India’s urban centres are riddled with the problems of traffic congestion, lack of parking spaces and high pollution-levels. These problems can be attributed to explosive growth in number of privately-owned vehicles coupled with lack of adequate public transport infrastructure. In US, Europe and China, bicycle-sharing has emerged as a popular, eco-friendly solution to the above problems. In India, cycles have been widely used in rural and semi-urban areas, especially by the poor as their primary mode of transport. With increasing preference for cycling among youth for recreation and fitness, cycles can be ideal eco-friendly mode of transport, for short trips, hitherto made on foot/using two-wheelers or auto-rickshaw. They can also complement public transport systems like BRTS & metro, providing first and last mile connectivity. A number of cities across India have set up cycle-sharing systems. Most of such projects are publicly funded, but lately a number of large as well as small private players have ventured into this domain. However, the present adoption of cycle-sharing platforms is very low in India. The major challenges include behavioral /attitudinal barriers, development of requisite infrastructure and price sensitivity of consumers.