Cycling for transportation is increasingly recognised as a core strategy to combat the climate emergency, particularly in dense urban environments.
In this frame, bike-sharing systems offer a valuable opportunity to attract new riders, promote physical activity, and reduce emissions. But as these systems expand, cracks begin to show.
A new bike-along study in Barcelona followed 17 regular users of the city’s docked bike-share system (Bicing) to capture their real, lived experiences. What emerged is a revealing picture of how infrastructure, design, and uncertainty shape whether shared cycling feels safe, satisfying, or stressful.
Here are some takeaways:
✅ Bike-sharing is a 3-stage journey
Users move through pick-up, ride, and drop-off — and each stage brings its own challenges. From unreliable bike supply to risky intersections and full docking stations, the barriers aren’t just physical — they’re psychological.
✅ Safety perception drives everything
Traffic safety was the top concern for all users, and it was strongly shaped by the quality of cycling infrastructure, lane width, and network connectivity. Riders felt most comfortable on wide, physically separated, and continuous bike lanes, where navigation was intuitive and interactions with traffic were minimized.
✅ Bike availability = Trust
Uncertainty at pick-up and drop-off erodes confidence. High-demand areas like transit hubs suffer from under-supply, while poor signage makes it hard to navigate to available docks. Reliability isn’t just nice, it’s essential.
✅ Design details make or break the experience
Heavy bikes, unpredictable brakes, poor lighting, and lack of child-carrying capacity all make docked bikes feel less usable than personal ones, especially for women and older riders.
✅ Users don’t just ride, they navigate
The experience goes beyond cycling. It’s about how connected stations are, how intuitive routes feel, and how safe transitions are from street to sidewalk to bike lane.
Implications for Planners and Policymakers:
There is no need to persuade people that cycling is good for the planet. Most already know. What’s needed is to give them a low-barrier, comfortable way to try it. Bike-sharing systems can be an effective gateway to urban cycling, but only if they are embedded in an environment that supports them. Infrastructure must take priority.
Physically separated, intuitive, and continuous cycling routes are essential, not optional. Equally important are well-designed and visible docking stations, with lighting, wayfinding, and capacity that match real demand. While safety statistics are reassuring, it is perceived safety, shaped by the built environment, that guides people’s day-to-day choices.
With the right investments in infrastructure and system design, bike-sharing can move from a niche service to a core part of sustainable urban mobility, ultimately bringing more people into urban cycling.
