When Will Dockless Bike Sharing Achieve a Carbon Balance A Case Study of Nanjing, China

As an environment-friendly travel mode, dockless bike sharing (DBS) has recently become very popular in China. It is significant to quantitatively evaluate the environmental benefits of DBS. This paper estimated the carbon dioxide (CO2) emission reduction of DBS by combining the one-month journey data of Hellobike, the DBS market survey, and the modal shift data in Nanjing, China. The life cycle assessment was administered to determine the carbon emission during the life cycle of DBS. In the case study of Nanjing, 38.6% of DBS trips are originally from motorised modes. And the carbon emission factor of DBS is found to be 22.53 g CO2/km. Based on the above findings, it takes about 842 days to strike a balance between the carbon emission in the life cycle and the emission reduction benefit. This research will significantly help transportation planners and decision-makers committed to the sustainable development of the DBS system.