Modeling the Distribution Characteristics of Urban Public Bicycle Rental Duration

Table 1

Basic information about the three cities.

City name	Ningbo	Hangzhou	Beijing
City type	Medium-sized city	Large city	Metropolis
Date of bicycle sharing system construction	2012	2007	2008
Primary area of distribution	Downtown	Downtown	Core
Area of coverage	About 145 km^2	About 185 km^2	About 250 km^2
Station density	8.6 stations per km^2	9.2 stations per km^2	8.9 stations per km^2
Bicycle lanes	Independent, connected bicycle lanes on urban roads	Independent, connected bicycle lanes on urban roads	Independent, connected bicycle lanes on urban roads
Number of public bicycles in the area of primary distributed	About 25,000 bicycles	About 40,000 bicycles	About 50,000 bicycles
Operation	Government-operated	Government-operated	Government-operated
Rental method	IC cards	IC cards	IC cards
Charging standards	Available free of charge for rentals of less than one hour; after one hour, charged on an hourly basis	Available free of charge for rentals of less than one hour; after one hour, charged on an hourly basis	Available free of charge for rentals of less than one hour; after one hour, charged on an hourly basis

Note: almost all bicycle sharing systems are operated by the local government in Chinese cities.