A stakeholders perspective on improving barriers in implementation of public bicycle sharing system (PBSS)

• Published in: Transportation research. Part A, Policy and practice Policy and practice, 2020-08, Vol.138, p.353-366
• Main Authors: Patel, Samir J., Patel, Chetan R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Barriers; Bicycle sharing; FAHP; Perspective; Prioritization; Stakeholder
• ISSN: 0965-8564; 1879-2375
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2020.06.007

Public bicycle sharing system (PBSS) has been adopted around the globe to reduce traffic congestion, CO2 emissions and for positive health effects. The first system was initially started in the year 1965 at Amsterdam and now it has been expanded almost in all the continents of the globe. The adoption of this concept was initially seen in developed countries. Now in the past decade various developing countries also have implemented the PBSS in their urban areas. However, the developing countries are facing many implementations and less ridership issues due to various barriers. This paper identifies the barriers which are hinders in the way of implementation of PBSS. An identified 31 barrier was categorized under six groups for ranking. The Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchical Process (FAHP) is applied to examine the relevance and prioritize them with the help of different stakeholders. Total 31 stakeholders were selected as experts from different working backgrounds for this study. The experts were grouped into six namely decision makers, academicians, consultants, scientists and researchers, operators, and users. The perspective of each group is also examined and checked using Kendall' coefficient. The majority of experts opine that City infrastructure barrier and travel characteristics barriers are most influential barriers for successful implementation of PBSS while technological and geographical barriers are least influential barriers. The overall results and opinions by different group of experts will help the decision makers to formulate effective policy to tackle all the barriers prior to implementation of PBSS in Indian urban areas. With the help of this framework, time and financial resources of the government can be utilized in an optimum way and the savings can be utilized for improving necessary city infrastructure.