Juan hartsuaga published an interesting presentations (in Spanish) on Prezi, where you can see all the pros and cons of introducing two solutions to promote cycling in the city – public bikes and public bike parkings.
Under the advantages of bike sharing he lists the fact that it’s been present for many years and also doesn’t have much impact on the urban landscape. The competition on the market leads to better and more effective solutions.
On the other hand, bike sharing systems are very costly (e. g. Barcelona spends €18 million to support the system and London will spend £140 million over 6 years) and they might be very inconvenient and annoying for the users if they can’t find any free bike at the station.
The bicycle parkings are much cheaper as far as maintenance is concerned but they might require a major investment to install, especially old, conventional systems. As there is no need to redistribute bikes the operating costs can be kept quite low. They are very convenient for the users who can use their own, personalized bikes and don’t have to care if they find any free bike (but they might care if they find a free place).
Cities that want to make life easier for cyclists definitely have a tough choice. They can make cycle paths, introduce bike sharing or bicycle parkings.
Bike sharing systems definitely have a very positive impact on cycling in the city. Miguel Bea Alonso in his work says they might be more effective in promoting cycling in cities than cycle paths. They are definitely a good way to make people start treating cycling as a usual way of moving across the city and make them part of urban transport system along with metro and buses. In Girona the system is already treated by the citizens as a usual means of transport.
Bicycle parkings should be introduced when there already are some cyclists in the city and their main concern is safety. These solutions are quite expensive to implement, but on the other hand they don’t have a high maintenance cost. With a system like Bicibox the whole bike parking system can even sustain itself with small subscription fees of users. In Icnita we also thought about keeping the initial investment costs down so we made it very easy simple to install (no public works involved). Also central control of the system makes it ultimately secure. After the parkings are introduced in the city they can also make the citizens cycle more, because they won’t be concerned about the security of their bikes. And with the space reservation system they would be sure to find a free space.
So which one to choose? Well, cyclists would probably love to have both of them in the city, but in today’s economic reality cities might have to make choices and it’s up to them to decide what they need the most. Everything depends on their local conditions. Cities may choose one system and then install the other, because they are meant to co-exist.
But one thing is sure – investing in sustainable mobility is the way to go. And it's worth it.
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