Green Urban Public Bikes Rental System: A Case Study of Taipei YouBike Hui-Hua Yang 1,a

Transcription

1 Advanced Materials Research Vol. 723 (2013) pp (2013) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland doi: / Green Urban Public Bikes Rental System: A Case Study of Taipei YouBike Hui-Hua Yang 1,a 1 Department of Aviation and Maritime Transportation Management, Chang Jung Christian University, Tainan City, Taiwan711 a hhyang@mail.cjcu.edu.tw Keywords: Bicycle; Public bikes rental system; Green transport Abstract. Public bikes rental system is an innovative scheme of rental bicycles in urban areas and can be seen as part of the public transport system. This study investigates the users of Taipei YouBike rental system, analysis their intention and behaviors, pre-expectation and actual experience on satisfaction. The result indicates that the users were mostly from long term annual fee commuters. The result also reveals distinct discrepancies between pre-expectation and actual experience, especially in distributes of safety routes and environments and clear indication of signs on bike routes. The findings can be used for Taipei City to improve the urban bicycle program and make more effort to develop safety cycling infrastructures and amenities. Introduction To reduce the environmental impacts and pursue sustainable developments, many cities have adopted transport policies that primarily aim at reduction in ownership and usage of motor vehicles and promote use of public transport [1]. Bike-sharing, or public bicycle program, is an innovative scheme of rental bicycles in urban areas and can be seen as part of the public transport system. Public bikes rental systems have received increasing attention in recent years with initiatives to increase cycle usage, improve the first mile/last mile connection to other modes of transit, and lessen the environmental impacts of our transport activities [2]. The Department of Transportation, Taipei City Government, in order to encourage citizens to use bikes as short-distance transit vehicles, launched the Program of the Establishment, Operation and Management of Bike Sharing System since 1998, in the hope that by equipping a urban bike lane network with a bike station service, encourage citizens to use low-pollution and low-energy-consumption Bike Sharing as short-distance transit vehicles and reducing and replacing personal possession and use of motor vehicles, traffic congestion, environmental pollution and energy loss in the city will be improved. The Taipei City Government, upholding the philosophy of green transport, resolutely invested seven years resources in building the biggest unmanned bike rental system in Taiwan (162 stations and 5359 Bike Sharing), which system was set up and operated by Giant Bicycle Inc., leader in the bicycle industry [3]. This paper provides an analysis of consumer satisfaction of the green urban public bikes rental system YouBike in Taipei. To explore users perceptual differences between pre-expectation and actual experience, and capitalize on its potential, highlight its strength and improve the weakness for its service. The findings can be used for Taipei City Government to improve the urban bicycle program. All rights reserved. No part of contents of this paper may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of TTP, (ID: /05/13,05:36:56)

2 Advanced Materials Research Vol Literature Review Cycling has become a fashion, easy and comfortable transport mode that many European citizens choose to travel in the cities. Vélo'v is a program of community shared bicycles that is deployed in the cities of Lyon and Villeurbanne [4]. It is one of the leading programs of this kind in France, running actively by JCDecaux from May 2005 on. It consists now of 4,000 available bicycles that can be hired at any of the 340 stations, spread all over the towns, and returned back later at any station. With the increasing need of green and versatile public transportation in cities, there is a current development of such community shared equipment programs in many European cities [5, 6]. Since 2007 the city of Barcelona has been operating one of the largest bike sharing systems called Bicing. Currently the network consists of more than 400 stations to lend and return over 6,000 bicycles distributed throughout the system. With 118,000 registered users and rentals per bike/day, as of November 2007 the system had been used more than 2,750,000 times, representing 8,000,000 km of travel [7, 8]. Vélib is a large-scale public bicycle sharing system in Paris, France. Launched on July 2007, the system has expanded to encompass around 20,600 bicycles and 1,451 bicycle stations, located across Paris and in some surrounding municipalities [7]. The Netherlands also has a program run by their state railway system, OV-Fiets (OV=public transport, fiets=bicycle). OV-Fiets has proven to be successful in its own scope with 23,000 people registered as users of the system in Martens [9] notes the success of the Dutch public transport bicycle system (OV-Fiets), which provides convenient and inexpensive short-term bicycle rentals (using automated smart card technology) for trips from major train stations to the final destinations of travelers, usually near the city center. The evidence compiled by Martens confirms that better integration of bicycling with public transport leads to more bike and ride trips, and probably to more bicycling overall. Now in over 60 European cities, public-use bicycles have made an enormous impact on personal mobility, allowing citizens to access the city through bicycles, used as a part of public transportation. Through user accountability and theft deterrents, public bicycle programs provide citizens with a highly efficient and reliable transportation option. As of May 2011 there were around 136 bike-sharing programs in 165 cities around the world, made of an estimated fleet of 237,000 bicycles. Launched in 2008, the Hangzhou Public Bicycle program in China is the largest bicycle sharing system in the world, with around 61,000 bicycles and over 2,400 stations; the Vélib' in Paris, which encompasses around 20,000 bicycles and 1,450 bicycle stations is the largest outside of China [10]. Research method The survey instrument for this study comprises two main scales, of which one measure the respondents pre-expectation of the importance of certain YouBike attributes before they rent a bike, and the other evaluates their actual experience of agreement with the same attributes after they rode. The items of both scales are measured on a 5-point semantic differential scale anchored by extremely unimportant (1) to extremely important (5), or strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). The instrument for the survey also includes questions regarding the user behaviors, such as renting purpose, users classification, renting frequency, and riding time. The final part of the instrument covered demographic information of the respondents, including age, gender, education, income, and occupation.

3 970 Innovation and Sustainable Technology in Road and Airfield Pavement The user responses to the YouBike service attributes were tabulated and descriptive statistics such as measures of central tendency (e.g. mean) and measures of variance (e.g. standard deviation) were calculated. Pairwise t-tests were conducted to evaluate the differences between pre-expectation and actual experience. Results were considered statistically significant if the p-value was < Additionally, the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) approach is employed to examine the performance of Taipei YouBike service attributes. The IPA matrix consists of four quadrants along two axes, one for measuring pre-expectation of the importance of each attribute and the other for performance evaluation (actual experience). Positioning the vertical (importance) and horizontal (performance) axes on the grid called for calculation of the mean value of all factors as Martilla and James [13] suggested. In constructing the two axes on the IP grid, the factor means of each group on actual experience (X-axis) and importance (Y-axis) were calculated. Then the attributes were presented graphically on the grid, plotted in one of the four quadrants. Each quadrant of the matrix is named to implicitly indicate the nature of the plots. The first quadrant, Concentrate here represents attributes that need to be improved. The second quadrant is named Keep up the good work. It represents attributes of high importance and high performance. Attributes with low importance and low performance are included in the third quadrant, Low priority. The last quadrant, named Possible overkill contains attributes of low importance but high performance [11]. The information gained from the plotting of the results may reveal weaknesses and strengths of a product/service. Ultimately, it is believed that this approach may help the rental system of YouBike to capitalize on its potential, highlight its strength and improve the weakness for its service. Results and Discussion Table 1 shows the demographic profile of study participants. For the186 valid questionnaires, there were slightly more male respondents (52.2%) than males, and the ages ranged from 21 to 40 (74.8% combined). A clear majority of respondents had university or postgraduate education (78.5% combined). The most common sector of employment was the business (32.3%), followed by service industry (24.7%) and government employee or teacher (17.2%). Most study participants were long-term users (69.4%) and their purposes of renting bike were commuting (71.0%). As to the frequency of riding YouBike, most respondents chose 7 or above (68.3%) and riding time was 30 min. or less (91.9%).

4 Advanced Materials Research Vol Table 1 Demographic profile of study participants (n= 186). Characteristics n % Gender Male Female Age group 0 ~ 20 yr ~ 30 yr ~ 40 yr ~ 50 yr yr and above Education level High school or less Jr. College University Postgraduate Occupation Student House keeping Government employee or teacher Service industry Manufacturing industry Business Others Purpose of renting bike Commuting Leisure Users classification Single rental users Long-term users (Members) Frequency of renting 1 ~ ~ or above Riding time 30 min. or less min. ~ 1 hr ~ 2 hrs hrs. and above Table 2 shows the respondents pre-expectation importance and actual experience agreement of YouBike service attributes. The most important service attributes of users pre-expectation were convenience of parking, rent and return procedures, safety routes and environments, and simple and convenient operation. The mean score of promotion and communication below 4.0 was the least important one. Respondents were also asked to indicate their level of agreement with actual experience in same attributes. After rented bike and rode, the most agreement service attributes of users actual experience were simple and convenient operation, lucid instructions of usages, and good

5 972 Innovation and Sustainable Technology in Road and Airfield Pavement quality and comfortable equipments. But the mean score all below 4.0, the results in Table 2 show that all service attributes have significantly differences between pre-expectation and actual experience. The mean scores of actual experience all were lower than those of pre-expectations, which implies that most users were not as satisfied with the rental system as they expected to be. The highest difference in mean scores was found in safety routes and environments, followed by clear indication of signs on bike routes. This indicates that the government needs to make more effort to develop safety cycling infrastructures and amenities. Table 2 Users perceptual differences between pre-expectation and actual experience: Paired-sample t-tests (n=186) Service attributes Pre-expectation Actual experience MD c M a SD b M SD t-value d 1. Lucid instructions of usages *** 2. Simple and convenient operation *** 3. Reasonable leasing rate *** 4. Convenient and intelligible consulting service *** 5. Convenient application procedures *** 6. Safety routes and environments *** 7. Convenience of parking, rent and return procedures *** 8. Good quality and comfortable equipments *** 9. Promotion and communication *** 10.Clear indication of signs on bike routes *** a M: mean. b SD: standard deviation. c MD: mean differences of pre-expectations and actual experiences d t-value is significant at *** p< A safe biking environment is the major constraint and concern of the bike users in Taiwan. This included a perceived lack of suitable bicycle infrastructures such as independent bike paths and clear indication of signs. Much of Europe, especially Germany, the Netherlands, and the Scandinavian countries, has a long tradition of constructing extensive systems of special bicycle facilities called bikeways. These include bike paths independent of the road network; sidepaths alongside but separated from roadways by a barrier such as a curb, fence, or parking lane; and traffic lanes reserved for cycling [12]. Due to the advantage of cars and motorcycles in Taiwan, the bicycle environment is safer with implementation of bikeways rather than bicycle lanes. Therefore the Taipei City Government shall focus on planning for safe cycling environment create an integrated cycling travel system.

6 Advanced Materials Research Vol For further analysis of Taipei YouBike rental system, the IPA matrix was constructed to compare the users pre-expectation (importance) and the actual experience (performance) of ten service attributes, and to recommend proper allocation of resources to areas requiring future improvement. The mean scores and standard deviations of the pre-expectation of the 10 service attributes and the actual experience of Taipei YouBike rental system were calculated (see Table 2). The results were plotted in the IPA grid (in Fig. 1). The grand means for importance and performance were used for the placement of the axes on the grid [13]. As shown in Fig. 1, 2 attributes were identified in the concentrate here quadrant, 5 in the keep up the good work quadrant, 2 in the low priority quadrant and 1 in the possible overkill quadrant Concentrate here 2. Keep up the good work Pre-expectation (Importance) Low priority 4. Possible overkill Actual experience (Performance) Notes: 1. Lucid instructions of usages 2. Simple and convenient operation 3. Reasonable leasing rate 4. Convenient and intelligible consulting service 5. Convenient application procedures 6. Safety routes and environments 7. Convenience of parking, rent and return procedures 8. Good quality and comfortable equipments 9. Promotion and communication 10. Clear indication of signs on bike routes Fig. 1 Importance-performance analysis for Taipei YouBike rental system The concentrate here quadrant captured 2 attributes, safety routes and environments and reasonable leasing rate. It was rated above average for importance but below average on performance. It is suggested that improvement efforts and special attention should be directed at and concentrated on the safety cycling constructions and reasonable leasing rate. Among 10 rental system s service attributes, 5 were identified in the keep up the good work quadrant. These were simple and convenient operation, good quality and comfortable equipments, convenience of parking, rent and return procedures, lucid instructions of usages, and convenient application procedures. All attributes are related with the software and hardware of bicycle itself, and these attributes were rated above average for both importance and performance. These results convey the message that in general, the bicycles in Taipei YouBike have performed well in the above respects.

7 974 Innovation and Sustainable Technology in Road and Airfield Pavement The 2 service attributes loaded in the low priority quadrant were promotion and communication and clear indication of signs on bike routes. They were rated as below average for both importance and performance. This implies that relatively fewer resources should be expended in this low priority cell. Although the importance of these 2 attributes were below average compared with other service attributes. However, this does not mean that the Taipei City Government should reduce its efforts to improve on these aspects, especially the mean score of clear indication of signs on bike routes was over 4.2, indicating that respondents rated it as important to extremely important. In other words, poor performance on these areas would cause unhappy experiences and generate dissatisfaction. Finally, there was one single attribute convenient and intelligible consulting service allocated to the possible overkill quadrant. This indicated that the attribute was rated as lower than the average of importance, and that the performance on this area was higher than the average. Good performance was observed from consulting service of Taipei YouBike in this area. Efforts should be towards maintaining high standards without over-utilizing resources in this area. Conclusion Public bike sharing services are becoming more and more popular in the past few years. Public bicycles has had profound effects on creating a larger cycling population, increasing transit use, decreasing greenhouse gases, and improving public health. YouBike is a sub-system of the MRT service in Taipei city of Taiwan. It provides commuters an alternative option to commute between locations. YouBike allows commuters to rent from one station and return at another. EasyCard, major credit cards, and cell phones are all accepted as payment methods for YouBike rentals, making it the most convenient rental system in the world. YouBike helps improve the urban landscape. The space previously occupied by unorderly motorcycles and private bicycles outside MRT stations will be replaced by the neat, stylish, and well-designed YouBike. As the rate of YouBike rentals increase, traffic congestion will decrease, and commuting around Taipei will become more convenient and pleasant. The policy of urban bicycle transportation has to consider several perspectives, including transportation, leisure athletic, public works and city management etc. Public bikes can be a door opener to promote urban cycling. However, people only use the bicycle if it is a safe, convenient and fast way to get around. The results of this study suggest that Taipei City Government has more needs to be done to create bicycle routes that increase perceived safety levels for people riding bicycles. Acknowledgment This paper was supported by the National Science Council of Taiwan under Grant NSC C E. We would like to thank Ya-hsin Chang and Ching-Feng Chang, who assisted in the questionnaire survey and data collection, and all respondents who accepted to be investigated.

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