Bikeshares encourage people to bike more often — and some for the first time, a new study found
By Jonathon Harker , Cycling Industry News
The long-running debate on whether cycle hire schemes have a material impact on cycling uptake have a new bank of evidence to call on – the new Collaborative Mobility (COMoUK) annual bike share report – which has found that bike share can be a gateway for new riders and encourages more frequent cycling.
The UK-focused report found that 53% of bike share users started cycling again after at least one year. A modest but useful 7% used bike share to cycle for the first time ever. While a small percentage, the ‘gold dust’ of bringing new cyclists to the world and indeed market is no little positive. Attracting new riders is of course vital to cycling in general and to the cycling industry specifically, and arguably bike share has been doing a better job of it than some other aspects of the cycle world.
