Public preferences towards bicycle sharing system in developing countries: The case of Mashhad, Iran

Abstract

Bicycle Sharing System (BSS) has been introduced as an alternative mode of urban transportation which can<br><br>mitigate the consequences of excessive motor vehicle usage and contribute to sustainable urban development.<br><br>Adoption of BSS within transport networks relies on their key attributes such as safety, accessibility, cost and<br><br>convenience to meet the public needs. Yet, the required infrastructure is often developed without much explicit<br><br>knowledge about the public preferences. The consequence of this lack of knowledge is more acute in developing<br><br>countries where there are economic and cultural constraints in adopting new modes of urban transportation.<br><br>This study aims to provide more insight on the key attributes that are considered by the public in selecting<br><br>BSS as the primary mode of urban transportation against the other alternatives in a developing country. First, a<br><br>thorough literature review is conducted to find common BSS attributes that have been investigated within developed<br><br>countries in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. An empirical list of BSS attributes is then<br><br>explored for the current bicycle sharing system in the city of Mashhad, the second most populated city in the<br><br>developing country of Iran, based on frequent costumers’ judgment and experts’ opinion. A Stated Choice<br><br>Experiment (SCE) survey is then designed and public preference data are collected from a sample of 90 randomly<br><br>selected residents in Mashhad. Multinomial logit (MNL), mixed multinomial logit (MMNL) and latent class<br><br>multinomial logit (LCMNL) models are used to investigate factors contributing to selection of BSS against other<br><br>transport modes.<br><br>We found that the MMNL model outperformed the other models in terms of statistical fit. More importantly,<br><br>we found that bicycle fare, separated bicycle lane, bicycle quality, pavement quality, proximity of bicycle stations<br><br>to bus stops, bicycle training programs, gender and employment status of respondents significantly influence<br><br>public preferences towards BSS in Mashhad. People are willing to pay substantially more than the<br><br>current bicycle fare to have safety, accessibility and convenience. The impact of gender and employment status<br><br>on the public preferences is not homogeneous across individuals. Overall, the findings of the study have important<br><br>implications to cost-benefit analysis of bicycle sharing system development plans in Mashhad.