Bike share mainly used by highly-educated men
The bike share scheme operated in Amsterdam by Flickbike was popular mainly among young, highly-educated men, mostly without children. Users of the bikes would otherwise have used public transportation or have walked. These preliminary conclusions were drawn by researchers of the University of Amsterdam.
Close to eighty percent of Flickbike users owned a personal bicycle. An important reason to use Flickbike is convenience and 29% indicate their own bicycle needed repair. The researchers warn no firm conclusions can be drawn from their data. Only one provider was involved in the study and response was low (7.5%).
After a chaotic introduction of bike share systems last year, which offer bicycles for rent on public spaces, the municipality wants to regulate the market. In the long term this should lead to fewer bicycles parked on the streets as fewer Amsterdammers need to own a bicycle. Further, bike share systems should reach Amsterdammers who currently don’t ride bicycles, who live predominantly in the Noord, Nieuw-West and Zuidoost districts.