Citation

Ding D, Jia Y, Gebel K. Lancet Public Health 2018; 3(5): e215.

Affiliation

Prevention Research Collaboration, Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; School of Allied Health, Australian Catholic University, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention, School of Public Health, Tropical Medicine and Rehabilitation Sciences, James Cook University, Cairns, QLD, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S2468-2667(18)30066-5

PMID

29678559

Abstract

Tackling the global pandemic of physical inactivity requires scalable interventions across many sectors, disciplines, and the whole of society. Active travel by cycling provides opportunities for health-enhancing population-level physical activity, while conveying additional benefits, such as reduced traffic congestion, and air and noise pollution, and improved liveability for communities.

China, once considered a kingdom of bicycles, has seen a substantial decrease in population-level cycling due to economic growth and the booming car industry. For example, from 2002 to 2010–12, the proportion of the Chinese population who reported walking as their main mode of transportation decreased from 30·7% to 22·5%, and for cycling the proportion decreased from 35·8% to 15·6%, whereas the proportion who reported motorised transport as their main mode of transportation increased from 33·5% to 61·9%.

In 2016, a new trend of mobile public-bicycle sharing that did not require docking stations emerged in China, led by companies such as Mobike and Ofo. Users can identify a nearby available bicycle with a smartphone app via the bicycle's inbuilt Global Positioning System (GPS), then once they have completed their journey they can leave the bike anywhere and pay for the ride (at a low rate) by smartphone. This new bicycle-sharing concept has become increasingly popular. For example, within a year of launching mobile public-bike sharing in Shanghai, China, more than 13 million users were registered and more than 1 million shared bicycles were available in the city ...

Language: en