New study reveals the climate benefits of Vancouver's public bike share system

New research reveals that using Vancouver’s bike share system has a pretty significant impact on reducing the city’s carbon footprint.

Simon Fraser University (SFU) researchers looked at datasets from Mobi by Rogers, the City of Vancouver, and TransLink to build emissions models, traffic simulations, and life-cycle assessments.

They found that in the current system, Mobi bikes make 2.4 trips per day, and that it takes 18 bikes to remove tailpipe emissions from one gas-powered car.

Researchers looked at bike trip data to see which rides were commutes and which were leisure rides, as well as trip diary data to see if a bike replaced a journey previously made by car, public transit, or something else.

Through this, they found that 54 per cent of Vancouver bike share trips would have otherwise been done in a car, reducing about 298 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

“That’s pretty good, but if those bikes were used eight times a day, it would only take five bikes for every one fossil fuel car and reduce tailpipe emissions by more than 3 per cent — all without adding a single bike share station or bike to the fleet,” says Vahid Hosseini, lead author of the study and a professor in the School of Sustainable Energy Engineering.

Then, they built a modelling system to calculate how much emissions were reduced through bike trips that replaced driving a car, which is how they came up with 298 tonnes.

In the study, the authors point out that electric vehicles tend to dominate the conversation on decarbonizing urban centres, but they still contribute to some major urban issues.

“Electric vehicles are still a key part of decarbonization, but we’re still struggling with traffic congestion, increasing pressure on infrastructure, and the slow rollout of electric vehicle charging networks,” said Hosseini. “Micromobility like bike-sharing offers a cost-effective and immediate solution to bridge this gap.”

Vancouver’s public bike share system was launched in the summer of 2016, and by 2023, it had 2,000 regular bikes, 600 e-bikes, 248 stations, and 4,665 docking points.

Hosseini hopes that the quantification of climate benefits by providing the bike-to-car ratio will encourage cities to design more connected and efficient transportation networks.

The study states that cities should prioritize investments in cycling infrastructure, expand bike-sharing networks, and ensure they are integrated with transit.

“Cities can maximize emissions reductions at a lower cost and with immediate benefits such as reduced congestion and improved air quality,” reads the study.