Loading...
Please wait, while we are loading the content...
Similar Documents
The Transition to Electric Bikes in China : Effect on Travel Behavior , Mode Shift , and User Safety Perceptions in a Medium-Sized City 中国城市的电动自行车热潮:其在中型城市的交通行为、方式分担及安全性分析
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Ma, Yang Cherry |
| Copyright Year | 2006 |
| Abstract | Despite rapid economic growth in China over the past decade and rise in personal car ownership, most Chinese still rely on two-wheeled vehicles (2WV) or public transport for commuting. The majority of these 2WVs are bicycles. In recent years, concern about poor air quality in urban areas and rising energy costs have caused cities to ban gasoline-powered scooters in city centers. Simultaneously, a new 2WV mode emerged to fill the void: the electric bike (e-bike). This shift to e-bikes is occurring at rapid pace throughout China, especially in its cities. E-bike sales reached 10 million per year in 2005 as more bike and public transit users shifted to this mode. City planners and policy makers are undecided on how to plan for and regulate ebikes because it is not yet clear what effect they will have on travel behavior, public transportation use, and safety. To begin to understand these effects, the authors have surveyed bike and e-bike users in Shijiazhuang, a medium-sized city with particularly high two-wheeled vehicle (2WV) use, to identify differences in travel characteristics and attitudes. We conclude the following: (partial list) • E-bikes are enabling people to commute longer distances. This has important implications on energy use, accessibility and urban expansion of cities. • People under-served by public transportation are shifting to e-bike. • Women feel safer crossing intersections on an e-bike compared to regular bike, however they have strong reservations about increasing e-bike speed capability. 摘要 虽然过去二十年中国快速发展的经济刺激了小汽车拥有量的快速提高,但绝大多数 的中国城市居民仍然依赖于两轮车辆以及公交车通勤,而两轮车辆中绝大部分是自行车。 近年来,对城市地区空气质量以及持续上涨能源成本的考虑,使得很多城市开始限制或禁 止燃气动力摩托车在市区的使用。同时,一种新的二轮交通方式开始大量出现,称之为电 动自行车。 向电动自行车的转变逐步向全国蔓延,特别城市地区。随着越来越多自行车及公交 使用者选择转向这种交通方式,在2005年,电动自行车的销售量达到了壹千万辆。然而, 城市规划师以及政策制定者尚未明朗如何规划应对或规范这种转变,因为其交通行为,安 全性以及对公交的影响还不明朗。为了能够了解这样的影响,作者对中国石家庄(一个百 万人口的中型传统城市,两轮车辆使用率较高)的自行车及电动自行车使用者进行了调 查,以分析其交通特性和态度的不同。 通过研究,作者得出以下结论: • 电动自行车能够延长人们的出行距离。这对于能源消耗,可达性以及城市扩张发展 都有重要意义。 • 公交服务氛围外的人们将大量转向这种电动自行车交通方式。 • 女性认为在通过交叉口时,相对于自行车,电动自行车要更加安全。然而,她们强 烈地反对继续提高电动自行车的速度。 Weinert, Ma, Yang, Cherry 3 INTRODUCTION Two-wheeled vehicles (2WV; e.g. bicycles, e-bikes, motor scooters, motorcycles) have historically been an important component of traffic throughout China and many other developing countries. In medium and large Chinese cities like Shijiazhuang, the dominant 2WVs are bicycles. Bicycles, estimated at 450 million nationally in 2004 [1], have been and still remain the dominant 2WV in Chinese cities, mainly due to low income, high population density (and thus short trips), and extensive bicycle infrastructure (e.g. lanes, parking). Based on statistical report in 2005, bicycle trip share is still over 50% in many large cities like Tianjin, Xi’an and Shijiazhuang [2]. Gasoline-powered motor scooters (GMSs) used to make up a larger percentage of the overall 2WV population, however, beginning in late 1990s, many large cities (population >1 million) and most capital cities have stopped licensing these vehicles. Total GMSs in China numbered 80 million in 2005 [3]. Although numbers are still growing in the wide rural areas and small cities, it is estimated that without urban restrictions, 4~5 million more would be on the roads [4]. In recent years however, due to improved standard of living and rapid urbanization, Chinese are shifting from bike (or public transit) to electric bikes (e-bikes) as they demand more flexible, convenient and comfortable mobility. In 2005, there were an estimated 20-22 million ebikes in China [5]. Production is expected to grow 80% annually over the next five years [6]. Throughout China, however, there are mixed views by government about e-bikes and their effect on traffic. In May 2006, a national government agency issued a report promoting ebikes for their air quality and energy-saving benefits [6]. In November 2006 though, Guangzhou became the third city in China to ban e-bikes (behind Fuzhou and Zhuhai), under advice from the traffic management bureau citing traffic safety concerns [7]. The safety issue of e-bikes mixed in traffic is a key consideration in the drafting of new National E-Bike Standards, which are under revision and under intense debate. The standard regulates the technical performance specification of e-bikes (see section below). Bicycle proponents such as the China Bicycle Association (CBA) want to limit e-bike performance to make them more similar to bicycle, and for fear that faster, heavier e-bikes will make them dangerous to cyclists. E-bike manufacturers, however, want to broaden the limits on weight, width and power to be able to build products that they claim customers want. Whatever new standard is adopted will greatly effect the future direction of ebike development in China. E-bike background E-bikes can be classified as a “semi”-motorized vehicle because they can run on either human power or electricity. They have become a popular transportation mode in China because they provide an inexpensive form of private mobility and are thus an attractive alternative to public transit or regular bicycling. With an average energy consumption of 1.2-1.5 kWh/100km, e-bikes offer extremely efficient transportation with zero local air pollution. While local pollution is negligible, they do operate on electricity, mostly generated from coal fired power plants. Perhaps the most problematic environmental issue with electric bikes is the use of lead acid batteries that have high lead loss rates during the production, manufacturing and recycling processes [8]. There are two main types of electric bikes: “Bicycle style” (BSEB) (or “simple” style) and “scooter style” (SSEB) [9]. While the SSEB looks more like a typical scooter, both styles are subject to the same National E-bike Standards [10]: Weinert, Ma, Yang, Cherry 4 1. Top speed= 20 km/h, 2. Max weight= 40 kg 3. Min range per charge = 25 km 4. Max power= 240W. Despite these standards, most e-bikes exceed these performances limits due to strong consumer demand for better performance coupled with lax enforcement of the standard. A small sub-survey of 14 e-bike users reveal top speeds from 25-40 km/hr and ranges of 25-50 km on a single charge, which requires 6-8 hours. E-bike range in cost from $125-300 (USD) compared to gasoline scooters at $500-600. Operating costs (includes fuel, maintenance and battery replacement) are $0.007/km compared to 0.031/km for a gasoline scooter [11]. Different cities have adopted e-bikes at different rates. On-street surveying of e-bike proportions versus other 2WV modes by the authors in various cities has shown that some cities have low adoption, like Beijing (<10%), while others have high adoption, like Chengdu (>50%). In Shijiazhuang, e-bikes make up 22% of all 2WV traffic (bicycles=77.5% and motor scooters/bikes 0.5%). The level of e-bike adoption is related to income, local regulation, public transit service quality, terrain, and other factors. Most cities in east China are situated on relatively flat terrain and amenable to bicycle and electric bike use. Shijiazhuang Background Shijiazhuang city is located in south-central Hebei province. As the capital of the province it has recently developed into an important commercial port of regional agricultural and distribution center of industrial products in northern China. The total and urban population in 2005 was 9.2 and 2.2 million, respectively. Total and Urban Area is 15,900 and 3,850 km, respectively. The topography in this area is low (70 meters above sea level) and flat since it is situated in the Huabei Plain of China. The climate ranges from an average high of 26.9 °C in July and an average low of -2.4°C in January. Shijiazhuang’s urban layout follows the typical Chinese model of a monocentric city with a high-speed ring road encircling the urban area. The urban area is divided into four quadrants by two railways and the city’s commercial district is centered around the railway station. Zhongshan Road and Yuhua Road form the principle axis from west to east and serve as the main travel corridor for all modes, including 2WVs. Residential areas mainly stand on the northwest, center and east of city. Bicycles and e-bikes compose the largest daily trip mode share in Shijiazhuang. A previous survey conducted by Shijiazhuang showed that in 2002, cycling trip share was 54% and reached a volume of 3 million trips per day. For comparison, public transit trip share was only 4.3% [12]. METHODOLOGY Because of the institutional and logistical difficulty in conducting random household surveys in China, the authors designed and implemented an intercept survey of 751 bike and 460 e-bike users throughout Shijiazhuang. The survey was administered at bicycle and e-bike parking lots along the main travel corridor (Zhongshan Lu) in Shijiazhuang in order to capture a diverse range of respondents from many different parts of the city. The survey was administered on both a workday and weekend day in June 2006, from 7:30-11:30 and 3:00-6:00 to collect as broad a range of respondent types as possible (i.e. workers, retirees, students, etc.). Separate surveys Weinert, Ma, Yang, Cherry 5 were given to bicycle and e-bike riders in order to identify any differences between their travel behavior and attitudes. Before launching this survey, the authors first administered a trial survey on 50 bike/ebike users to identify the potential problems with the survey and uncover any unintentional biases. We found some of the response choices inappropriate and certain questions confusing. These problems were corrected before administering the final survey. Potential sampling biases/inaccuracies Surveyors kept the sample balanced in gender and ages. However, based on site observation, the proportion of male and female e-bike users is not evenly balanced; in a random sample of 180 ebike users, 62% were female, 38% were male. This may lead to an under-representation of female attitudes and travel behavior regarding e-b |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://cloudfront.escholarship.org/dist/prd/content/qt38b3q3jg/qt38b3q3jg.pdf?t=l5xgmp |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
