Bikesharing and ordinary cyclists from Chile: Comparing trips, attitudes, and health-behaviours

Journal of Transport Geography

Bikesharing helps citizens solve “the last mile” problem actively and healthily. However, these schemes tend to be located in the affluent and central areas of cities and often demand users to pay by credit or debit cards that are typically out of reach for poor groups, especially in developing countries. Consequently, bikesharing tends to reproduce existing inequalities in cities, leaving vulnerable groups and those living in poor areas with no option to ride bicycles.

This study compares bikesharing users and ordinary cyclists from Santiago de Chile in terms of their sociodemographic characteristics, health status, transport-modal patterns, attitudes, and perceptions toward cycling and bikesharing infrastructure.

In all, 1272 adult participants (569 bikesharing users and 703 ordinary cyclists, 63% males) responded to a 12-min survey in Santiago de Chile. The main findings show that bikesharing users reported higher educational levels and car ownership than ordinary cyclists, made shorter trips, and cycled less often than ordinary cyclists. However, using shared bikes permits them to comply with nearly 53% of their weekly physical activity recommendations, as nearly 40% of bikesharing trips would be otherwise made by car. Bikesharing users also tend to visit central areas of Santiago and rarely visit less central and affluent zones.