The number of bicycle users from the bike sharing points in Ahmedabad city grew 10-fold in the 20 months of Covid pandemic from March 2020 to November 2021, a study by students of the CEPT University has found. The study that analysed over 60,500 rides found 70 per cent of them to be for fitness or leisure purposes, than to commute. Bicycle sharing system known as “AmdaBike — The Public Bicy-cle Sharing System of Ahmed-abad” was formally introduced in the city in December 2019 under the Smart City Ahmedabad Development Limited (SCADL) along with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). As many as 1,000 bicycles were deployed over three months and it began to pick up around September 2020 with Mybyk being the main service provider. The four-month research involving a survey of Public Bike Sharing System (PBSS) in Ahmedabad city covering around 450 users was done by 29 post-graduate third semester Masters in Urban Management students of the Faculty of Managment.The study also found that almost 18,000 users were lost by January 2022. “Between July and September 2022, the students analysed nearly 60,500 rides, which was a mix of short and long rides across the city. however, there were patches, which did not attract significant number of rides whereas some areas were high ridership zones,” said Utsav Mishra, one of the students involved in the research. Out of these analysed rides, 42,000 or more than 70 per cent were leisure and fitness rides. “These were zero displacement rides or rides originating and ending at the same dock,” said Swathy CV, the PG student. According to the findings, “With workout spaces not opened for users during the Covid pandemic and even parks and gard-ens locked down, residents found a solution in cycling. This was witnessed majorly among age group between 16-35 years, equally among males and females.” Among the concerns raised by the respondents — both who used and not used the bicycles — were the need to provide immediate assistance in case of breakdowns, accidents, need to keep well maintained cycles with adjustable seats, optimum air pressure and a good customer support, which can be contacted at all hours. Bicycle provider Mybyk has around 300 bicycle stations in Ahmedabad with a total of 4,000 bicycles of which 1,000 are at Sabarmati Riverfront alone, says Shreyanch Shah, associate director of the company. Operational in seven cities at present with the largest presence in Ahmedabad followed by Indore, Kochi, Mumbai, Nagpur, Udaipur and Pune, the firm will begin operations in Mysore next month. The data analysis and findings of this “Service Operations and Management Studio” will be shared on the India Urban Observatory (IUO), said professor Gayatri Doctor, faculty member and tutor for the studio. It was being exhibited at the CEPT University’s Winter Exhibition 2022 that showcased the work of 1,600 students in over 110 different studio units from the Monsoon Semester 2022. The CEPT Winter Exhibition 2022 that concluded on December 16 exhibited works from 64 undergraduate and 37 postgraduate studios across six faculties — CEPT Foundation Programme, Architecture, Design, Technology, Planning and Management. The churn rate, which is the percentage of users lost in the past month out of total users, rose above 10 per cent from October 2021. The service provider was losing more customers than it was on-boarding. The morning rides between 5am to 8 am constituted the highest rides at 33 per cent, whereas the office hours were the lowest ridership hours. Following the high morning rides, night rides-between 9 pm till 4 am- were the second highest with 25 per cent of over 69,000 rides analysed. This was followed by evening rides (5 to 8 pm) with 22 per cent. While rides of less than one kilometre distance were reported from limited areas, mostly around institutional residential and riverfront areas, rides of over a kilometre were spread across the city. The high ridership areas were the Sabarmati Riverfront, Nirma University hostel, LD Engineering College, Shivranjani and Prahladnagar, while areas of low ridership were Soni ni chali, IIMA old campus, Vastral lake and Adani Shantigram. Survey of 450 respondents The students also conducted a survey of 450 respondents — 41 per cent females and 59 per cent males — in the age group of 16 to 60 years with majority students — both permanent residents and migrants. This survey revealed that while fitness and leisure rides account for a majority of all residents, it is prominent among permanent residents. Commute is more prominent among migrants. However, 70-80 per cent of them were unaware of the pricing plans offered by the service provider. “Getting selected for IUO is a big thing for us as it serves as a repository of insights in the urban ecosystem,” said Suraj VS, another CEPT student from Masters in Urban Management at Faculty of Management. The IUO has been established in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs that acts as a data analysis and management hub to enable sustainable growth in cities and make them more livable for which it is essential to focus on evidence-based planning and policy formulation. The research also revealed that in terms of awareness, 56 per cent of these respondents were aware of the public bike sharing system and had used it at some point of time. Around 35 per cent of 450 respondents were aware but not used it, remaining eight per cent were unaware of the system and never used it. The nature of usage among these respondents too was for fitness and leisure followed by commute.
