Planning a viable cycle sharing service for the last mile connectivity: a case study of Delhi Metro

Abstract

Cycle - an affordable alternative to other modes and hitherto the most friendly transportation mode has seen a drastic decline in users of today’s generation. It can be a boon for today’s urban scenario as it can help in decongestion of roads, in reducing the pollution level and is also a healthy alternative for transit. The way today’s generation (major share) looks towards cycling is an alarming situation because not only their mindset but their habits have also changed as against the previous generations. Down the years, usage of cycle has decline as a mode to travel. Also today’s generation has developed a notion that cycle is a mode for poor and they consider it unsafe. The problem does not end here but is perpetuating since no major measures have been taken to promote and safeguard cycling in the past. A lot many studies have been done in terms of providing infrastructure to the cyclists, which has led to the formation of standards and guidelines while Cycle Sharing Service is still at a nascent stage in the country. India has a huge potential of using cycle as a mode to travel especially for short trips. So my study is a quest on ways to plan a viable Cycle Sharing System as a Service. The study would be done by incorporating the learning’s from the past, the international standards for planning such systems and the local conditions of the case study area. It would majorly focus on spatially locating the potential docking stations in the identified Cycle Sheds of the selected Delhi Metro Stations on basis of various indicators like Major trip attracting points, Land use of the area, etc. For understanding the current travel pattern in the study area, aspects like trip length, purpose, frequency, expenditure, etc would be considered through an opinion survey. To assess the potential demand in the service area, willingness to use such service would also be captured in the survey. Also the estimation and costing of providing such service would be done to get an idea about the Net Present Value of the overall system after considering all the Capital Expenditure, Operational Expenditure and Potential Revenues. It would be done in order to make a financial model for running such system while identifying the potential owner and operator of the system for a successful implementation of providing such service in the study area.