Cihan Erçetin

Planning and Management of Bikesharing for Sustainable Urban Transport: Konya, Kayseri and Istanbul Cases from Turkey Cihan Erçetin

Considering the problems of traffic congestion, energy dependency and air pollution depending on excessive use of private car, different transport alternatives to ensure sustainable urban transportation have come into question. Particularly in Europe, bicycle use, which does not create any pollution and uses resources and road space at a minimum, has appeared as a sustainable alternative and besides, recently bike-sharing systems have contributed to this process positively. Bike-sharing systems, which introduce a number of bike stations in urban areas to encourage citizens to take a bike from one station and then leave it at any other one, further promotes the usage of bikes for urban transport purposes. The system has numerous examples all over the world, and has recently been launched in some Turkish cities too. This research analyzes the planning and operating approaches in bike-sharing. The underlying objectives are to provide a better understanding of the current experience in bike-sharing systems in Turkey, to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of the systems implemented so far, and to provide recommendations for the planning,implementation and operation of future systems.