Ridership and effectiveness of bikesharing: The effects of urban features and system characteristics on daily use and turnover rate of public bikes in China

• Bikesharing adoption and diffusion in China are discussed.
• Factors affecting bikesharing daily use and turnover rate are examined.
• Population and government spending tend to increase bikesharing riders and efficiency.
• Bikesharing demand and supply influence ridership and effectiveness significantly.
• Personal credit and universal cards can raise bikesharing usages and turnover rate.

As a pinnacle of green transportation with transit attributes, bikesharing has become particularly popular since the mid-2000s. Two crucial questions for the success of bikesharing adoption are how many riders can bikesharing attract, and what influences its effectiveness. To shed light on answers to these questions, this paper models the impacts of urban features and system characteristics on bikesharing daily use and turnover rate, using data constructed on 69 bikesharing systems in China. Prior to modeling, we provide an overview of bikesharing adoption in China, describing why they have been adopted, how they have matured, and how they have expanded. Results from data regression and comparison indicate that bikesharing ridership and turnover rate tend to increase with urban population, government expenditure, the number of bikesharing members and docking stations, whilst the number of public bikes shows significant but adverse signs in impacting bikesharing ridership and turnover rate. Data comparison shows that, to pursue an ideal bikesharing turnover rate in most Chinese cities, the bike-member (supply-demand) ratio should be better controlled within 0.2. Moreover, this study suggests that personal credit cards (allowing bikesharing members to pay “personal credit” rather than money if they do not return public bikes within the free use hours) and universal cards (integrating bikesharing systems into other urban transit systems through the use of a rechargeable smart card that can cover a range of payments and trips) can significantly raise bikesharing daily use and turnover rate. We recommend that bikesharing operators and transit agencies take the supply-demand thresholds and the adoption of personal credit cards and universal cards into consideration in the future bikesharing operation and development policy.