CEE Professor Chris Cherry is one of four authors of research published in the June 2016 issue of Transportation Research: Part C, an international scholarly journal that addresses development, applications, and implications of technology in the field of transportation. The article, entitled “Factors influencing the choice of shared bicycles and shared electric bikes in Beijing,” discusses the results of a bikeshare experiment in Beijing.
Electric bikes (e-bikes) have limited integration into bikeshare systems, but are seen by many as the next technological advance. This is the only study of its kind to introduce the concept of large-scale e-bikeshare and to investigate the factors influencing the choice to use such as system in large markets like China. It used a novel stated preference approach to investigate a new bikeshare market, and quantifies the environmental variables, like weather and air pollution, that influence demand that are often discounted in existing studies.
“Including e-bikes in a bikeshare system could change the way bikeshare systems interface with other modes of transportation,” says Cherry. “E-bikes are more attractive for many types of trips and environmental conditions and could make bikeshare attractive to transportation users, ultimately increasing the performance of the bikeshare system.”
To read the entire research paper, click here.