The Main Benefits of a Bike Sharing Program | Essay Paper Sample

An Essay About Bike Share: General Procedure and Legal Features

For the last decades, bike sharing program have primarily evolved in the cities as a means to make bicycles readily available for many people. Many cities and urban areas have offered and implemented bike sharing program which has been considered to be the most demanded service in the cities. The following are some of the reasons why cities should offer a bike sharing service.

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Many spontaneous and planned trips in the cities can be made possible by a shared bike service. This is usually considered as an ideal complement to numerous trips as it provides both first and last mile connections.

Bike sharing program can help in reducing the transportation cost of a person in the city as it offers an affordable transport cost in public. Normally, bike sharing offers the first 30 to 60 minutes of every ride in the city free of charge (Anderson, 2015). With this, it encourages the high turnover of the bikes and increases the chances that in every station, there will be more bicycles that can meet the prevailing market demand.

Bike sharing program also offer economic, environmental, social and even health benefits. Implementing bike sharing program in the city will help in reducing car carbon related emissions for the last mile trips. The program has also been providing detailed tracking of the health benefits such the calories burned (Peters, Adam & Nora, 2013). A wide variety of economic advantages such as urban redevelopment and tourism can also been supported by the bike share initiative. For instance, the Capital Bikeshare has responded to the demand of the system by making stations around the hotels and the Mall hence providing additional transportation options to both tourists and residents.

Finally, by installing the bike sharing program in the cities, jurisdiction can greatly benefit from the low operational and implementation costs as business can be open in moths rather than years.Entreneurship is identifying a problem and coming up with a profitable, sustainable solution of solving the problem. Entrepreneurship involves identifying market gaps such as: poor quality goods, insufficient goods, lack of goods, expensive goods and lack of services. After identification the entrepreneur comes up with a new way of doing things. He must write a business plan which entails capital required by the business, business location, business structure among other things. Good business plans together with proposal can be used to source funds from monetary institutions required by the business.

The entrepreneur then obtains necessary documents that legalize the operation of business. In Kenya, entrepreneurs face many challenges majorly on finances and registration. The government has come up with many frame work to assist in the same which has only been of small benefit. Upton now we all agree that the government’s main role is to provide a conducive environment where business is done but not to create jobs. I mean the government should completely get out of the way and leave businesses to compete fairly without regulations.

Part of the government ensuring a conducive environment should be removing unnecessary long bureaucracies, of obtaining licenses, lowering or completely removing high registration fees, removing laws that may restrict operation hours of businesses and lowering or completely removing taxes and making it easy for businesses to access finances for example by lowering bank rates.

Typical Questions About Bike Share Programs

How Do Bike Share Programs Work?

Companies place parking units around the city. Anyone can rent a bike for the short term. To do this, you need to download a special application that tracks the location of each user. Typically, companies provide membership cards, passes, or one-time transactions. It’s simple. There is a standard one-time payment for bike rental and tariffs based on the time of use.

A potential client needs to download an application for a smartphone and register to activate the share program. Typically, each bike has a QR code. The user must activate the camera to scan it. Once the app recognizes the code, you need to pay for the base plan. As soon as the share period ends, your credit card or membership account will be charged accordingly.

Here’s another step. Once you've finished riding the bike, you have several options. Some companies allow you to park your bicycle anywhere. Other users can find them thanks to the app and GPS navigation. Some companies require you to drive to the nearest parking unit and leave the bike there.

Is Bike Sharing Profitable?

This type of business is profitable. The fact is that many people need bikes, as this is a fairly comfortable way to get to their destination along the original route. As a rule, people use share programs if they need to cover 3-10 km during a day or several hours. The payback period for such a business is 5-8 months, depending on the city and local infrastructure.

It should be noted that this is an average indicator. The payback period can be extended if the parking units are located in cities and areas with high crime rates. In such cases, the business can start making a profit in 15-20 months, provided that no more than 20% of the bikes are stolen during the specified period.

The popularity of the service is because not all cities have a sufficient number of public transport lines. In addition, some people find it easier to share a bike and drive along a narrow street to their destination than waiting for a taxi and driving for about 30 minutes, risking a traffic jam.

How Many Bike Share Programs Are There in the World?

At the moment, people can use bike-share programs in 2100 cities around the world. More than 400 large companies provide such services worldwide. Some companies like Coca-Cola also offer bike-share programs in major cities in Europe and the United States. On average, each European country has about 100 small companies and 10-15 leaders, covering up to 80-90% of the market.