Bike Sharing as a Solution for Mobility
Issues in São Paulo: Benchmarking
with International Experiences
Renata Hamilton de Ruiz and Luiz Eduardo R. C. Rielli
1 Introduction
Bike sharing is an alternative and sustainable means of transport that contributes
to the creation of healthy cities. Its popularity can be explained by the fact that
bike sharing systems (BSS) are associated with several numbers of social, environmental and economic benefits such as flexible mobility, traffic jam reduction, less fuel
consumption, reduced CO 2 emissions, improvement in user health and decrease of
sedentary lifestyle diseases (such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, among others),
reduction of noise pollution, individual financial savings and support for multimodal
transport connections, encouraging greater use of public transport (Scott et al. 2019;
Zhang and Mi 2018; Shaheen et al. 2010; Caggiani et al. 2019; Fishman et al. 2014).
The BSS operators’ value proposition is to offer low-cost options for passenger
travel, making it a cost-effective alternative to the “last mile” of daily commute—
the distance between user’s home or workplace to public transport, which in many
cases is too long to walk (Rielli et al. 2019; Si et al. 2019; Pritchard et al. 2019).
The conventional BSS market, and more recently, the electric bicycle and scooter
market, has been expanding rapidly, albeit with business and operating models still
in validation. In 2010, 250 BSS were in operation worldwide, jumping to over 1,700
in 2017 (SLOCAT 2018).
The fiercely competitive and dynamic market, low entry costs and pioneering
benefits have led operating companies to offer services even before identifying,
R. H. de Ruiz (B)
Institute of Energy and Environment (IEE), University of São Paulo (USP), Avenida Prof Luciano
Gualberto, Cidade Universitária, São Paulo/SP 1289, São Paulo, CEP 05508-010, Brasil
e-mail: renataruiz@usp.br
L. E. R. C. Rielli
Noví Soluções Socioambientais, Rua Felix Bracquemond, 56, São Paulo/SP, São Paulo, CEP
05,427–040, Brasil
e-mail: luiz.rielli@noviconsult.com.br
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Integrating Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development,
World Sustainability Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59975-1_45
673
Issues in São Paulo: Benchmarking
with International Experiences
Renata Hamilton de Ruiz and Luiz Eduardo R. C. Rielli
1 Introduction
Bike sharing is an alternative and sustainable means of transport that contributes
to the creation of healthy cities. Its popularity can be explained by the fact that
bike sharing systems (BSS) are associated with several numbers of social, environmental and economic benefits such as flexible mobility, traffic jam reduction, less fuel
consumption, reduced CO 2 emissions, improvement in user health and decrease of
sedentary lifestyle diseases (such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, among others),
reduction of noise pollution, individual financial savings and support for multimodal
transport connections, encouraging greater use of public transport (Scott et al. 2019;
Zhang and Mi 2018; Shaheen et al. 2010; Caggiani et al. 2019; Fishman et al. 2014).
The BSS operators’ value proposition is to offer low-cost options for passenger
travel, making it a cost-effective alternative to the “last mile” of daily commute—
the distance between user’s home or workplace to public transport, which in many
cases is too long to walk (Rielli et al. 2019; Si et al. 2019; Pritchard et al. 2019).
The conventional BSS market, and more recently, the electric bicycle and scooter
market, has been expanding rapidly, albeit with business and operating models still
in validation. In 2010, 250 BSS were in operation worldwide, jumping to over 1,700
in 2017 (SLOCAT 2018).
The fiercely competitive and dynamic market, low entry costs and pioneering
benefits have led operating companies to offer services even before identifying,
R. H. de Ruiz (B)
Institute of Energy and Environment (IEE), University of São Paulo (USP), Avenida Prof Luciano
Gualberto, Cidade Universitária, São Paulo/SP 1289, São Paulo, CEP 05508-010, Brasil
e-mail: renataruiz@usp.br
L. E. R. C. Rielli
Noví Soluções Socioambientais, Rua Felix Bracquemond, 56, São Paulo/SP, São Paulo, CEP
05,427–040, Brasil
e-mail: luiz.rielli@noviconsult.com.br
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Integrating Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development,
World Sustainability Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59975-1_45
673