The Changing Trends of Bicycle Usage in China: Macrolevel Analysis

Cities in China have experienced extremely large changes in both socioeconomics and traffic characteristics in the past decade. These changes have resulted in a long-term change in the percent of bicycle usage in the city areas. The primary objective of this study is to capture the changing trends of bicycle usage in cities of China from a macroscopic perspective and explore the reasons for the change. To achieve the objective, data are collected from 45 medium-to-large cities in different spatial regions of China. The data analysis shows that the percent of bicycle usage in cities of China gradually decreased in the past years with an average rate of 2.69% for conventional bicycles and 1.07% for all bicycles (including conventional and electric bicycles). Larger cities generally have lower levels of bicycle usage. The models are developed to analyze the relationship between bicycle usage and city-level characteristics. The results show that as the population and land area in a city grow and the income level increases, the average trip time becomes longer and more travelers choose to use motorized trip modes, which consequently reduce the bicycle mode share in the city area. This study concludes that the bicycle usage could keep decreasing in the future in cities of China.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABE90 Transportation in the Developing Countries.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Yang, Chen
  • Li, Zhibin
  • Wang, Wei
  • Ye, Mao
  • Zhao, Yajie
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2013-1-13 to 2013-1-17
• Date: 2013

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 14p
• Monograph Title: TRB 92nd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bicycle travel; Case studies; Modal shift; Modal split; Urban travel
• Geographic Terms: China
• Subject Areas: Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01473631
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 13-2408
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 25 2013 8:51AM