+ BACKGROUND, CHALLENGES AND OBJECTIVES

Background
Cycling had been trendy in the Seoul Metropolitan City (hereafter Seoul) with public bicycles being offered by the city. Public bicycle-sharing system in Seoul, called Ttareungyi, was first introduced in October 2015 to cultivate a cycler-friendly environment in Seoul.

The “Ttareungyis” was named after sound of bicycle bells and they come in either a bright green or a traditional design. Through this bike-share programme, the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) hopes to cultivate a culturally enriched public space for the citizens and improve the sustainability of the city.

Challenges
SMG presented its “Master Plan on Activating Bicycle Use” in 2008 for a public bike-share system. Before introducing Ttareungyi, Seoul had a public bike-share service, which saw its first pilot in November 2010, with 440 bicycles and 43 stations in Sangam-dong. By the end of 2012, an average of 585 public bicycles were used on a daily basis, but this rate continuously decreased due to a lack of stations and bicycle lanes.

+ ACTIONS AND IMPLEMENTATION

Expansion of Cost-effective Public Bicycle System
Under these circumstances, the government began to modify the existing urban infrastructure to make way for a revamped public bicycle system. To promote cycling, the “Operational Plan for Expanding & Constructing a Public Bicycle-sharing Service” was established in 2014. 

The plan aimed to increase the number of public bicycles to 20 per 10,000 citizens and install sufficient stations so that there would be at least one within a 5-minute walk from every residential complex in Seoul. The service was first initiated in major tourist attractions and the City Hall. There are further plans to extend the scheme to where there is demand for cycling.

To facilitate the system, the rent and return system uses a smart phone application. The bicycles were also mass-produced exclusively for the service. These measures kept the cost of setting up the service low. 

Construction of the System
The Ttareungyi service began in October 2015 with five bike-share areas, 150 bike-share stations and approximately 2,000 public bicycles. The selected bike-share areas were Yeouido, Sangam-dong, Shincheon and Seongsu-dong. Outside the CBD, these are mainly highly-densed residential areas, where city officials have observed a high demand for bicycle trips. Bike-share stations have been installed near subway stations, bus stops, apartment complexes and government offices. Use of the bicycles is closely monitored and the number of bicycles for each station is adjusted accordingly, to improve the efficiency of the system. 

The locations of the bike-share stations were selected in the following manner: 1) Demand for cycling, 2) Opinions from experts and citizens, 3) Final confirmation.

Operation of the Service
The Ttareungyi system can be used by anyone at 15 years or older. Registration, payment and even checking the number of bicycles available for rental at each station can be made through the system website bikeseoul.com or its smart phone application, making it user-friendly. Passes can be purchased for a year, 180 days, 30 days, or seven days, and one-day tickets are also available for members and non-members alike. For the one-day ticket, the lowest charge is KRW 1,000 (about US$0.85) for an hour, with an additional KRW 1,000 for every 30 minutes thereafter. Mileage points can also be accumulated when transferring from the bike-share system to public transportation. Members who purchase passes that last longer than a day would receive 100 points (KRW 100) when transferring to a bus or subway within 30 minutes of delivering the public bicycle to a station. The points can then be used as cash when purchasing the next Ttareungyi pass. 

Public Promotion
The government advertised the public bike scheme extensively to promote the brand identity. Professional public relations firms were hired to promote the designs for the name of the scheme, brand identity, bike stands, mobile application and the website. Ttareungyi, the official name, was eventually decided through a public contest, while the design was selected through a survey. Testers were recruited for each public relations campaign and also for creating and enhancing awareness of the program. For example, Ttareungyi testers were recruited in October 2015 before the bicycle system was open to the public. The testers used the public bicycles for free until the end of the year to enable the system to be monitored.

+ OUTCOMES AND IMPACTS

As of March 2017, 
- 237,941 citizens have signed up for the service. 
- The number of cases for service usage is 2,084,011. 

In regard of the facilities (June 2017)
- 13,288 bicycles and 
- 11,142 bike ports
- 897 stations are in operation. 

According to the publication, Walkable and Bikeable Cities-Lessons from Seoul and Singapore, co-authored by the Seoul Institute and Centre for Liveable Cities (2016), the data reveal that people mostly use Ttareungyi for short distances on a regular basis. Passes were used for an average of 26 minutes per use. Utilisation rate was highest within the four main gates of the old city (30%). Citizens in their twenties were the main users (44%), and men used Ttareungyi more often than women (67%). 

Compared to the pilot program in the Sangam-dong and Yeoido region held from November 2010 to the end of April 2015, the average number of uses per bicycle has increased by 62%, and the number of members has increased by 220%. During the pilot program, each bicycle was used an average of 1.35 times per day in March/April 2015, but the rose to 2.19 time within the same time frame in 2016.

+ REPLICABILITY AND SCALABILITY

A public bicycle service can be an effective way to encourage cycling, but a lack of expertise regarding establishing the system first led to complaints and low utilisation rates. It is also important to construct a system that complements the existing urban context and traffic circumstances, especially in large cities.
 
Above all, instead of focusing on the short-term results, public bicycle services must be consistently promoted as a healthy mean of transportation that can revitalise the urban environment and benefit all. 

+ BUDGET AMOUNT

Bicycles
Period Explanation # of Bicycles
2010~2015.4 Public bike-sharing program (before Ttareungyi)   440
2015.9 Pilot project of Ttareungyi 967
2016.3 Corporation in operation 2,000
2016.7 Expansive operation 5,600
2017.5 Additional expansive operation  11,600 (phase 1)
20,000 (phase 2, planned)

At the early stage of implementation, private cooperation contributed greatly in securing the bicycles; 1,823 bicycles have been donated from companies such as Woori Bank (1,323), Alton (100), Naver (150), Kakao Group (150), and SK Planet (100).  

Infrastructure 
The length of bike paths in Seoul in total reached to 779km and those related to the public bike-sharing establishment was 158km in July, 2016. This has been extended in 2015 to 41.4km. In 2016, 51.1 km of roads have been added up to reach 274.3km in total.  

Budget
2016 (USD million)
Annual Expenditure Budget
Total Contracting-out  Private agent project costs
Subtotal Personnel expenses General expenditures Performance-based payment Extra expenses 
5.25 3.14 1.44 1.59 0.11 0.09 2.11
Annual Expected Revenue 
Title Revenue Target Note
Bicycle fee 0.88 -Period: March~ December, 2016
- Bicycles: (March ~ July) 2,000, (August ~ December) 5,600 

2017 (USD million)
Annual Expenditure Budget: 21.5 (Approximately four times that of 2016.)