Bike Usage in Public Bike-Sharing: An Analysis of the “BikeMi” System in Milan

The constant increase of public shared bicycle systems (PSBSs) in western cities suggests that nowadays city councils consider public bike sharing systems a serious alternative to traditional public transportation in urban areas. PSBSs can represent a solution in the hands of citizens for short journeys in highly urbanized areas. In this paper we focus on the successful example of Milan’s BikeMi PSBS which is giving very positive results in terms of satisfaction for all the actors involved, i.e. the service management, city council and users. From the available data it can be inferred that the bicycle overcome the car central areas in terms of speed, distance travelled daily, and choice of multiple itineraries, especially during peak periods and in proximity of the main railway stations. The main bicycle tracks and hotspots are also detected revealing an imbalance between the northern and the southern part of the city, with the northern part better covered by the service.