Past, Present, and Future

planned in 22 nations in 2010. Despite rapid global motorization, worldwide bicycle use has generally increased during the past 30 years. Indeed, bicycling in Dutch, German, and Danish cities increased between 20% and 43% between 1975 and 1995 (2). Although cycling growth and trends vary worldwide, bikesharing offers a transportation alternative to increase bicycle use by integrating cycling into the transportation system and making it more convenient and attractive to users. The principle of bikesharing is simple. Individuals use bicycles on an as-needed basis without the costs and responsibilities of bike ownership. Bikesharing is short-term bicycle access, which provides its users with an environmentally friendly form of public transportation. This flexible short-term use scheme targets daily mobility and allows users to access public bicycles at unattended bike stations. Bicycle reservations, pickup, and drop-off are self-service. Commonly concentrated in urban settings, bikesharing programs also provide multiple bike station locations that enable users to pick up and return bicycles to different stations. Bikesharing programs typically cover bicycle purchase and maintenance costs, as well as storage and parking responsibilities (similar to carsharing or short-term auto use) (3). Besides individual user perks, bikesharing offers environmental-, social-, and transportation-related benefits. For instance, bikesharing providesa low-carbon solution to the “last mile” problem. The last mile refers to the short distance between home and public transit or transit stations and the workplace, which may be too far to walk. Thus, bikesharing has the potential to play an important role in bridging the gap in existing transportation networks, as well as encouraging individuals to use multiple transportation modes. Potential bikesharing benefits include (a) increased mobility options, (b) cost savings from modal shifts, (c) lower implementation and operational costs (e.g., in contrast to shuttle services), (d) reduced traffic congestion, (e) reduced fuel use, ( f ) increased use of public transit and alternative modes (e.g., rail, buses, taxis, carsharing, ridesharing), (g) increased health benefits, and (h) greater environmental awareness. The ultimate goal of bikesharing is to expand and integrate cycling into transportation systems, so that it can more readily become a daily transportation mode. In recent years bikesharing also has expanded to college and work campuses throughout North America. Indeed, there are more than 65 college and university bikesharing programs operating throughout North America and another 10 programs planned in 2010. Examples of college and university programs worldwide include CibiUAM at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM) in Spain and Velocampus Leeds at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. The focus of this paper, however, is on citywide systems that are open to residents and visitors, as opposed to closed systems that are accessible only to students and employees of a Bikesharing in Europe, the Americas, and Asia Past, Present, and Future