Low-carbon transformation of cities: Understanding the demand for dockless bike sharing in China

Dockless bike sharing, a new way of travelling to complement public transportation systems, can bring obvious benefits to the low-carbon transformation of cities. Accordingly, this paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the effects of individual-, household- and city-level characteristics on the use of bike sharing, using nationwide data from China via the China Household Finance Survey. The results showed that age, educational attainment and household income were significantly associated with the adoption of bike sharing. City characteristics are also found to be important to the likelihood of using shared bikes. Importantly, we confirmed the complementary effects between dockless bike sharing and public transportation, such as underground rail, buses and taxis, while a substitution effect exists with motorcycles and private cars. These findings have clear policy implications for the development of bike sharing and the low-carbon transformation of cities in China.