Beicology: How Much Do Sharebikes Actually Do for Beijing’s Environment?

How bad is the smog these days, really? Who is keeping tabs on the state of our drinking water? What has the government done about carbon emissions lately? In Beicology we turn our focus toward environmental news in the capital. 

There’s no question that Beijing tries hard to be a world-class bikeable city. In the past five years alone, the city has completed 3,200 kilometers of new bike lanes, with nine so-called exemplary cycling pathways set for completion by this year's end. As state media proudly touted in its recent coverage of this accomplishment, at 2.5 meters wide, the average bike lane in Beijing is wider than lanes in cities known for their bikeability like Copenhagen and Amsterdam.

Yet, the Chinese capital faces very different challenges from these European cities, as we previously out with our discussion of the transportation issues presented by the city’s urban sprawl. In short, Beijing’s formidable subway system enables residents to live in the suburbs while working in central parts of the city – a commute far too long to expect regular cycling, even if infrastructure enables it.

This situation – suburban dwellers working in the city, coupled with bikeable roads and sizable sidewalks for bicycle parking – is in part what has enabled sharebiking to succeed in Chinese cities where elsewhere it has failed, as they help to address what scholars call “the last mile problem.” The subway covers the majority of the commute distance; commuters just need to worry about the last bits, be it from their home to their station, from the station to their workplace, or from station to station in some transfer cases.

Sharebikes are an ideal solution to this problem, allowing commuters to cover that “last mile” quickly and conveniently. As such, they’ve been celebrated as a way to tackle carbon emissions by helping to reduce car and bus traffic. But do they actually have a significant impact? One study published earlier this year by scholars at North China University of Technology suggests that they do – but they could have much greater impact in the future if the city acts to embrace the bikes as a last-mile solution.

The study analyzed the use of sharebikes at dozens of subway stations throughout the city, as well as land use surrounding key stations. To take the stations in the Central District Bureau for example, the authors found that sharebikes are currently reducing carbon emissions by about 414 kilograms per workday, or the equivalent of about 20 tanks of gas for a typical passenger vehicle.

However, based on the analysis of land surrounding the stations and its potential for sharebike usage and parking within a 100-meter diameter, the authors calculate that sharebikes have the potential to reduce emissions by up to 14,000 kilograms per workday, or about 660 tanks of gas! – that is, if the municipal government is willing to cooperate to promote usage and accommodate sharebike parking. The study also found similar conclusions when looking at stations in Beijing’s southern residential section, and northern university section.

In short, sharebikes are doing some good, but making sure that there are more of them in the right place at the right time, as well as encouraging the public to use them, could significantly increase their impact on the journey to reduce carbon emissions.

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Image: China Focus