With the rapid global expansion of dockless shared bicycles, disorderly parking has not only generated convenience to users but also negative consequences to enterprises and urban management. We proposed an integrated model and recruited 1722 participants from diverse professions and geographic locations in China, examining the influence of individual and social environmental factors on orderly parking behavior. It was shown that descriptive social norms played an important role in shaping user’s attitudes toward orderly parking directly and indirectly via personal norms, and thus influence the behavioral intention of orderly parking. Cultural tightness-looseness further moderated the effect of descriptive social norms. At the individual level, antecedents of personal norms (moral awareness, awareness of consequences, and ascription of responsibility) were investigated based on Norm Activation Model. This study indicates that descriptive social norms can act as a complimentary policy and regulations of dockless bike-sharing, which provides valuable insights on urban operation and policy making concerning shared bicycles.

Examining the influence of social norms on orderly parking behavior of dockless bike-sharing users

Low-carbon transformation of cities: Understanding the demand for dockless bike sharing in China

Balancing supply and demand for a dockless bike-sharing system is difficult as users are allowed to pick up and return bikes anywhere within a large service area. One strategy to help manage the amount of dockless bikes scattered within a service area is to offer monetary rewards for users who would be willing to pick up bikes scattered around some central location or to return their bikes at this central location. We develop a modeling framework to analyze the effectiveness of using dynamic incentive schemes for balancing the amount of bikes in the system to minimize the expected operating cost. Using an extensive set of numerical experiments, we illustrate specific operation environments under which these dynamic incentive schemes would be most effective for reducing the operating cost of the system. We find that the use of dynamic pickup and return rewards can generate very substantial cost reductions in an operating environment with a high traffic intensity of bike return outside the central location and a high overall traffic intensity of bike returns relative to bike pickups in the system. We also find that return rewards are generally more cost-effective than pickup rewards. 

Dynamic incentive schemes for managing dockless bike-sharing systems

Regulating the curbside usage of delivery vehicles and ride-hailing services as well as micromobility has been a challenge in the last years, a challenge which might worsen with the increase of autonomous vehicles. The contribution of the research outlined in this paper is an evaluation method of the land use of on-demand meal delivery services such as Deliveroo and UberEats. It evaluates the effect parking policies, operating strategy changes, and scheduling options have on the land consumption of bicycle couriers and sidewalk automated delivery robots (SADRs). Various operating strategies (i.e., shared fleets and fleets operated by restaurants), parking policies (i.e., parking at the restaurant, parking at the customer or no parking) and scheduling options (i.e., one meal per vehicle, multiple meals per vehicle) are simulated and applied to New York City (NYC). Additionally, the time-area requirements of on-demand meal delivery services are calculated based on GPS traces of Deliveroo and UberEats riders in two UK cities. The simulation in the paper shows that SADRs can reduce the time-area requirements by half compared with bicycle couriers. The effect of operating strategy changes and forbidding vehicles to park at the customer’s home is small. Delivering multiple meals in one tour halves the time-area requirements. The time-area requirements based on GPS traces is around 300 m2·min per order. The study allows policymakers to learn more about the land use of on-demand meal delivery services and how these can be influenced. Hence, they can adjust their policy strategies to ensure that on-demand meal delivery services are provided in a way that they use land effectively, reduce external costs, improve sustainability and benefit everyone.

Land Consumption of Delivery Robots and Bicycle Couriers for On-Demand Meal Delivery Using GPS Data and Simulations Based on the Time-Area Concept

The free-floating bicycle sharing system (FFBSS) service has been becoming an important and popular mode for travel in the urban mobility ecosystem. Although many studies conducted surveys to understand the usage characteristics of FFBSS service for the general population, few studies focus on the usage behavior of university students. A total of 228 valid responses from Huai'yin Institute of Technology (HYIT) were collected to examine the usage behavior of FFBSS service and identify the key service attributes driving satisfaction levels among Chinese university students. Undergraduate and graduate university students are an important and novel population, as they are still forming their values and beliefs, and therefore are more open to engaging in sustainability efforts (e.g., not owning a car or choices towards green travel modes). Descriptive analysis was performed to analyze FFBSS service usage frequency, FFBSS trip characteristics, and the motivation to use FFBSS service. The results show that the socio-demographic information (e.g., age, gender, year of study, and monthly expense) and e-bike/bike ownership significantly influence the usage frequency. Time-saving and convenience are two of the main motivations driving FFBSS service usage. Multivariate regression and importance-performance analysis (IPA) are conducted to identify important FFBSS service attributes impacting user satisfaction levels and identify priority service attributes for improvement. It highlights the importance of the density of the designated location for bike returns, the number of available bicycles, the position accuracy of bicycles, and the good functioning condition of bicycles. The findings provide useful insights into the planning and management of FFBSS services on campus and in cities.

Usage behavior and satisfaction analysis of free-floating bicycle sharing system service: evidence from a Chinese university campus

Dockless shared bicycles have become a popular mode of transportation for city dwellers in China. Despite its convenience, the dockless feature also creates new challenges, as users often park shared bicycles in a disorderly fashion, which places a burden on both city management and business operations. In a randomized field experiment, subjects receive general information via one of three interventions to improve orderly parking: being informed about the social norm, receiving a warning message, or being offered a monetary incentive. The results suggest that the warning message and monetary incentive shift users’ behavior compared with the social norm intervention. Users who received warning messages were 18.0% more likely to park in an orderly fashion, and users who received a monetary incentive were 25.2% more likely. This study demonstrates that behavioral incentives may be an effective tool to address a common issue with this form of transportation.

Xianghong Wang

Papers

Promoting considerate parking behavior in dockless bike-sharing: An experimental study