TY - JOUR
T1 - Trade-off between environmental benefits and time costs for public bicycles
T2 - An empirical analysis using streaming data in China
AU - Wang, Zhaohua
AU - Xue, Mengtian
AU - Zhao, Yuandong
AU - Zhang, Bin
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2020/5/1
Y1 - 2020/5/1
N2 - In recent years, bicycle sharing has become more popular in cities and towns around the world. Public bicycles are one of the important forms of bicycle sharing. The use of public bicycles instead of motor vehicles has brought about changes in environmental benefits for the society, and at the same time, it has also changed the travel time of residents. Because these changes are potential and cannot be measured directly, we put forward the calculation methods of environmental benefits and time costs of public bicycles according to the concept of opportunity cost. Taking Hohhot, the capital city of Inner Mongolia, as an example, according to the streaming data of 9.76×106 valid orders of public bicycle trips in 2016, we found that the use of public bicycles could reduce consumption of standard coal by as much as 5,796.11 tons (accounting 0.16‱ of the total coal consumption in Inner Mongolia) and carbon emissions were reduced by 4,381.28 tons (accounting 0.30‱ of the total carbon emissions in Inner Mongolia). However, the promotion of public bicycles is not without disadvantages. The use of public bicycles has increased the average travel time of residents by 0.06 hours, which is neglected in previous studies. The contribution of public bicycles to saving 1kg standard coal corresponds to 0.10 hours of travel time waste. Thus, reducing 1kg of carbon emissions is corresponding to a waste of 0.14 hours of travel time. The use of public bicycles varies among different income groups, which is caused by the value of travel time. Low-income groups use more frequently than high-income groups. Generally speaking, low-income groups bring more environmental benefits to society through the use of public bicycles, but bear more time costs. Therefore, we propose a carbon tax on high-carbon transportation modes to encourage green travel and balance the environmental benefits and time costs of public bicycles.
AB - In recent years, bicycle sharing has become more popular in cities and towns around the world. Public bicycles are one of the important forms of bicycle sharing. The use of public bicycles instead of motor vehicles has brought about changes in environmental benefits for the society, and at the same time, it has also changed the travel time of residents. Because these changes are potential and cannot be measured directly, we put forward the calculation methods of environmental benefits and time costs of public bicycles according to the concept of opportunity cost. Taking Hohhot, the capital city of Inner Mongolia, as an example, according to the streaming data of 9.76×106 valid orders of public bicycle trips in 2016, we found that the use of public bicycles could reduce consumption of standard coal by as much as 5,796.11 tons (accounting 0.16‱ of the total coal consumption in Inner Mongolia) and carbon emissions were reduced by 4,381.28 tons (accounting 0.30‱ of the total carbon emissions in Inner Mongolia). However, the promotion of public bicycles is not without disadvantages. The use of public bicycles has increased the average travel time of residents by 0.06 hours, which is neglected in previous studies. The contribution of public bicycles to saving 1kg standard coal corresponds to 0.10 hours of travel time waste. Thus, reducing 1kg of carbon emissions is corresponding to a waste of 0.14 hours of travel time. The use of public bicycles varies among different income groups, which is caused by the value of travel time. Low-income groups use more frequently than high-income groups. Generally speaking, low-income groups bring more environmental benefits to society through the use of public bicycles, but bear more time costs. Therefore, we propose a carbon tax on high-carbon transportation modes to encourage green travel and balance the environmental benefits and time costs of public bicycles.
KW - Environmental benefit
KW - Environmental management
KW - Public bicycle
KW - Streaming data
KW - Time cost
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85078703449&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.136847
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.136847
M3 - Article
C2 - 32018100
AN - SCOPUS:85078703449
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 715
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
M1 - 136847
ER -