Inequalities in the London bicycle sharing system revisited: impacts of extending the scheme to poorer areas but then doubling prices

By Anna Goodman, James A. Cheshire. 2014

211 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Cycling confers transport, health and environmental benefits, and bicycle sharing systems are an increasingly popular means of promoting urban cycling. Following the launch of the London bicycle sharing system (LBSS) in 2010, women and residents of deprived areas were under-represented among initial users. This paper examines how the profile of users has changed across the scheme’s first 3 years, using total-population registration and usage data. We find that women still make fewer than 20% of all ‘registered-use’ LBSS trips, although evidence from elsewhere suggests that the introduction of ‘casual’ use has encouraged a higher overall female share of trips. The proportion of trips by registered users from ‘highly-deprived areas’ (in the top tenth nationally for income deprivation) rose from 6% to 12%. This was due not only to the 2012 LBSS extension to some of London’s poorest areas, but also to a steadily increasing share of trips by residents of highly-deprived areas in the original LBSS zone. Indirect evidence suggests, however, that the twofold increase in LBSS prices in January 2013 has disproportionately discouraged casual-use trips among residents of poorer areas. We conclude that residents in deprived areas can and do use bicycle sharing systems if these are built in their local areas, and may do so progressively more over time, but only if the schemes remain affordable relative to other modes.

Subfields: Automotive Engineering, Transportation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/67c60db9c7c44f146500e5fa2a75c2d5e8766ee6

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In Automotive Engineering

1. Miriam. Ricci
2. E. Fishman
3. Gabriele Prati

In Transportation

1. Miriam. Ricci
2. Ipek N. Sener
3. E. Fishman
4. Gabriele Prati
5. Yoram Shiftan
6. Floridea di Ciommo

Citations in the corpus

• Understanding the role of equity in active transportation planning in the United States (2017, background): “Although women and low-income travellers are underrepresented in London’s bikeshare programme, a recent expansion of stations in poorer neighbourhoods doubled the amount of trips in those areas (Goodman & Cheshire, 2014).”
• Bike sharing: A review of evidence on impacts and processes of implementation and operation (2015, methodology): “In London, real usage data revealed that women account for less than 20% of total bike sharing trips (Goodman & Cheshire, 2014) and that under 45 s account for an estimated 78% of all bike sharing travel time (Woodcock, Tainio, Cheshire, O'Brien, & Goodman, 2014).”
• Gender Equality and Women’s Participation in Transport Cycling (2017, background): “For instance, higher levels of bicycle use in United Kingdom were not related to an increase in the representation of women (Aldred et al., 2016) and inequalities in the London bicycle sharing system persist (Goodman and Cheshire, 2014).”
• Bikeshare: A Review of Recent Literature (2016, background): “A study by Goodman and Cheshire (2014) found that users of the London BSP were disproportionately wealthy when the programme began in 2010.”