Name: Chen Cao Age: 29 Home country: Credit-based Cycle Hire Scheme for Public Transit Transfer in China

Urbanization and urban developments are occurring in accordance to the development of urban transport systems, particularly in terms of their capacity and efficiency. Historically, movements within cities tended to be restricted to walking, which made medium and long distance urban linkages rather inefficient and time-consuming. Thus, activity nodes tended to be agglomerated and urban forms compact with mixed uses. (Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue, 2017)

There is a lot to be said for cycle hire and bike share schemes since their mushrooming introduction in developed Europe (i.e., Velib in and Santander bicycle in ) back in the first ten years of new century age. Not only do they provide communities with convenient access to bikes, helping to offset carbon footprints, but effective and well-used cycle hire schemes can help reduce congestion, improve health, and ease car parking pressures. However, to ensure a cycle hire scheme succeed rather than being left in a chaos state due to bad management and vandalism, there perhaps has no solution fitting for all. In many other developing markets, taking China as a case example, where implications may differ, engaging the youth provides options to the adaption of business models and contributes to scale-able adoptions.

Current pricing structure of existing cycle hire schemes ranges from $2 to £2 for a 24-hour casual pass, or from $3 to $5 per month to get an unlimited number of journeys with or without preregister, but a debit or credit card payment is mandatory. In contrast, some available cycle hire schemes in China deposit nothing but personal credit, and charge via mobile apps as little as $0.15 per hour, making them particularly popular among the youth.

Legitimacy

The youth community in China cannot be held accountable for credit-based bicycle sharing scheme adoption without a clear sense of the scale of the public transit transfer problem and an understanding of where the transportation problem is most prevalent. Moreover, tracking the youth population for public transit transfer is not just a niche issue but a matter of broader interest relating to SGDs 2030 expectations (Goal #9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure). How many youth people (i.e. age between 15 and 24 years old by UN definition) are there in China, and how many are there likely to be in 2030? By which means these people are likely to be served by public transit? How is the composition of those means and where opportunities could be laid out for stakeholders in the transportation ecosystem? What different market implications for the youth engagement on transportation could be for an upper-middle-income country or sovereign entity such as China when urbanization growth rate is approaching to a steady status? Below market assessment attempts to fill this gap by providing a best approximation to date in response to each of these questions, before offering supplemental case study and actionable recommendations for stakeholders who may concern based on these findings.

Case Study and Policy Case Study:

Background/Project Description/Results/Lesson learne

Features of youth engagements: mobile payment, credit, SDGs 2030

Led by OfO, Chinese cycle hire schemes engage youth in an innovative and creative way with the adorable and classic design, favorable pricing options, and extremely mobile characteristics.

The society would benefit from 1) the total productivity factor increased with demonstrated evidences shown in time-saving and energy-saving on transportation means and thus more time and energy invested in education (for teenagers aged 15 to 19 years old) and work and research (for young adults aged 19 to 24 years old); and 2) credit system building thanks to large base of young credit contributors. In parallel, by scaling up the adoption of bicycle sharing scheme, working age youth would contribute to inventory reduction and new models of bicycle sales.

Action and Lesson Learned

Chinese cities, including newly urbanized ones, are unlike their European counterparts where spaces are created specifically for bicycles in urban areas, with reserved lanes and parking facilities. Cycling in Chinese cities simply share access to pedestrian and road space. This leads to serious concern on safety and thus further regulation barriers on cycle hire and bike share schemes. To improve the equitable uptake of cycling, there needs a strong alignment among all required stakeholders: transportation operators, local authorities, the sponsors, the central banks, the major card and telco providers that support the rapid payment systems. For example, taking the cycle hire schemes into mindset of designing and building the next-generation cities in deprived areas; and further expand the schemes among female youth or those under-represented residents to incentive changes.

Considering all the factors mentioned above, will we together achieve Goal 9 Target: by 2030, upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes, with all countries acting in accordance with their respective capabilities.

-ENDS-

Endnotes:

[i]. Rodrigue, J., 2017. The Geography of Transport Systems. Routledge