Smart and sustainable urban mobility: How connectivity may support bike-sharing operators' businesses

Abstract

Smart urban mobility, particularly cycling, is seen as playing an important role, not only in making cities smarter but also more sustainable. One of the most important characteristics of smart cycling is connectivity, which allows the generation of considerable amounts of mobility data that, in turn, may support the decision-making of the different members of the specific two-wheeler urban mobility (2WUM) ecosystem, encapsulated within the larger smart city ecosystem. One particular member of the 2WUM ecosystem that can benefit from such information are bike-sharing operators. Their number has grown dramatically over the last few years, but they also face important challenges that can threaten business sustainability in the long run. Based on an in-depth qualitative study with six bike-sharing operators, following the jobs-to-be-done framework, this paper explores how smart products and services based on mobility information can contribute to improve the bike-sharing operators' jobs, mitigate their pains and help to reach their expected gains.