Bike Sharing as a Solution for Mobility Issues in São Paulo: Benchmarking …
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ten times more units than BikeSampa, the city’s main shared bicycle network so far.
Two other companies are registered to launch similar services in the city, the Chinese
Mobike, one of the largest in the world, and Serttel, but have no start date defined
yet. In 2019, Yellow, which also offers electric scooters, included in its portfolio
shared electric bicycles in the dockless model. The company, that merged with Grin
in 2019 creating the new company Grow, covers an area of 21 square kilometers
in São Paulo in which bicycles and scooters can be used (G1 2019; Miotto 2019;
Médici 2018; Barifouse 2018; Caputo 2019). On January 22, 2020, however, Grin
has temporarily interrupted all its bike sharing services in Brazil and has also stopped
offering electric scooters in almost all Brazilian cities, except for São Paulo/SP, Rio
de Janeiro/RJ e Curitiba/PR. This decision was made after local newspapers started
publishing pictures of an abandoned lot acquired by the company in Curitiba, in
which hundreds of damaged bikes were being abandoned (Balago 2020; Silveira
2020).
6 International Experiences
6.1 Berlin, Germany
Germany is a traditional market for mobility inventors, manufacturers and suppliers.
Car appreciation is part of the German culture and is associated with the way cities and
their means of transportation were structured. Berlin, however, is not the birthplace
of major automotive industries and its population has a cosmopolitan profile, open
to new global trends such as sustainability (Rielli et al. 2019). In 2017, Berlin’s GDP
reached e136 billion (about US$163 billion at the 2017 exchange rate), accounting
for 4% of the national total GDP (European Comission 2019).
Berlin, with its area of 892 square kilometers (Deloitte 2018), has geographical
features that make it easy to implement new mobility models, especially low-impact
ones such as bicycles and walking. The city has a polycentric urban structure and
flat topography, which reduces displacement efforts. It has 344 passenger cars per
1000 inhabitants, which is low compared to other large cities, meaning alternative
transport options are essential. The number of new mobility options, such as freefloating car sharing, rental bikes or electric scooters, has been growing for several
years (Oostendorp e Gebhardt 2018).
It has 3,55 million inhabitants with a population growth tendency (Oostendorp e
Gebhardt 2018) and it receives 13,5 million tourists annually, being one of the most
visited cities in Europe (STATISTA 2014). The increase in demographic’s figures
has been reflected in the time spent in traffic jams. On average, people in Berlin make
3.5 trips per day, and spend about 80 min in traffic (McKinsey and Company 2016).
The city offers a wide range of mobility services, based on a large public transport
network. The modal split in Berlin is composed of 31% trips on foot, 30% by car, 27%
by public transport and 13% by bike. The car fleet has been growing by over 5% since
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ten times more units than BikeSampa, the city’s main shared bicycle network so far.
Two other companies are registered to launch similar services in the city, the Chinese
Mobike, one of the largest in the world, and Serttel, but have no start date defined
yet. In 2019, Yellow, which also offers electric scooters, included in its portfolio
shared electric bicycles in the dockless model. The company, that merged with Grin
in 2019 creating the new company Grow, covers an area of 21 square kilometers
in São Paulo in which bicycles and scooters can be used (G1 2019; Miotto 2019;
Médici 2018; Barifouse 2018; Caputo 2019). On January 22, 2020, however, Grin
has temporarily interrupted all its bike sharing services in Brazil and has also stopped
offering electric scooters in almost all Brazilian cities, except for São Paulo/SP, Rio
de Janeiro/RJ e Curitiba/PR. This decision was made after local newspapers started
publishing pictures of an abandoned lot acquired by the company in Curitiba, in
which hundreds of damaged bikes were being abandoned (Balago 2020; Silveira
2020).
6 International Experiences
6.1 Berlin, Germany
Germany is a traditional market for mobility inventors, manufacturers and suppliers.
Car appreciation is part of the German culture and is associated with the way cities and
their means of transportation were structured. Berlin, however, is not the birthplace
of major automotive industries and its population has a cosmopolitan profile, open
to new global trends such as sustainability (Rielli et al. 2019). In 2017, Berlin’s GDP
reached e136 billion (about US$163 billion at the 2017 exchange rate), accounting
for 4% of the national total GDP (European Comission 2019).
Berlin, with its area of 892 square kilometers (Deloitte 2018), has geographical
features that make it easy to implement new mobility models, especially low-impact
ones such as bicycles and walking. The city has a polycentric urban structure and
flat topography, which reduces displacement efforts. It has 344 passenger cars per
1000 inhabitants, which is low compared to other large cities, meaning alternative
transport options are essential. The number of new mobility options, such as freefloating car sharing, rental bikes or electric scooters, has been growing for several
years (Oostendorp e Gebhardt 2018).
It has 3,55 million inhabitants with a population growth tendency (Oostendorp e
Gebhardt 2018) and it receives 13,5 million tourists annually, being one of the most
visited cities in Europe (STATISTA 2014). The increase in demographic’s figures
has been reflected in the time spent in traffic jams. On average, people in Berlin make
3.5 trips per day, and spend about 80 min in traffic (McKinsey and Company 2016).
The city offers a wide range of mobility services, based on a large public transport
network. The modal split in Berlin is composed of 31% trips on foot, 30% by car, 27%
by public transport and 13% by bike. The car fleet has been growing by over 5% since