Experimental Study on Shared Bike Use Behavior under Bounded Rational Theory and Credit Supervision Mechanism

Abstract

As a new travel model, the bike-sharing system (BSS) solves the ‘last kilometer’ problem and has developed rapidly for its convenience. However, many accompanying problems have emerged. In China, parking violation problems—such as severe traffic congestion—are caused by dock-less shared bikes. Furthermore, a large number of shared bikes have to be scrapped early for vandalism. As a special form of public good, bike-sharing also faces the dilemma of negative externalities. Seeking a solution, Mobike has conducted a credit supervision mechanism, which transfers the users’ different behavior to credits for user behavior regulation, but with unsatisfactory results. The goal of the paper is to test the validity of credit supervision mechanism from user’s perspective to regulate the abuse of sharing bike by simulating the use scenario of BSS in real life in a lab experiment based on induced value theory. The behavioral and pre- and post-experiment survey data were thoroughly analyzed. The results show that, within a negative context, the credit supervision system has a more significant effect on inducing proper user behavior, which improves after adding a real-time feedback mechanism. Finally, we provide effective suggestions to policy makers and shared bike companies for inducing positive user behavior.