Title: When will dockless bike sharing achieve a carbon balance? A case study of Nanjing, China

Authors: Mingzhuang Hua; Jinyang Zhang; Xuewu Chen; Wendong Chen

Addresses: Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Urban ITS, Jiangsu Province Collaborative Innovation Centre of Modern Urban Traffic Technologies, School of Transportation, Southeast University, Dongnandaxue Road #2, Nanjing, 211189, China ' Xiamen Land Space and Transport Research Centre, Lianyue Road #221-2, Siming District, Xiamen, 361000, China ' Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Urban ITS, Jiangsu Province Collaborative Innovation Centre of Modern Urban Traffic Technologies, School of Transportation, Southeast University, Dongnandaxue Road #2, Nanjing, 211189, China ' School of Transportation, Southeast University, Dongnandaxue Road #2, Nanjing, 211189, China

Abstract: As an environment-friendly travel mode, dockless bike sharing (DBS) has recently become very popular in China. It is significant to quantitatively evaluate the environmental benefits of DBS. This paper estimated the carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission reduction of DBS by combining the one-month journey data of Hellobike, the DBS market survey, and the modal shift data in Nanjing, China. The life cycle assessment was administered to determine the carbon emission during the life cycle of DBS. In the case study of Nanjing, 38.6% of DBS trips are originally from motorised modes. And the carbon emission factor of DBS is found to be 22.53 g CO₂/km. Based on the above findings, it takes about 842 days to strike a balance between the carbon emission in the life cycle and the emission reduction benefit. This research will significantly help transportation planners and decision-makers committed to the sustainable development of the DBS system.

Keywords: dockless bike sharing; DBS; emission reduction; life cycle assessment; LCA; modal shift; China.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGW.2023.130987

International Journal of Global Warming, 2023 Vol.30 No.2, pp.174 - 192

Received: 16 Apr 2022
Received in revised form: 07 Oct 2022
Accepted: 11 Oct 2022
Published online: 17 May 2023 *

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