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Abstract

It is established that 26% of the UK's total emissions in 2021 are attributed to transport (Department for Transport, 2023), hurting the national bid to reach net-zero 2050 (DESZN,
2013). These issues faced nationwide are equally prevalent in Portsmouth as 53.9% of commuters drive to work (PCC, 2022 b) and only 17.7% of adults cycle once a month for travel (PCC, 2021 d), establishing a reliance on the car. Active transport schemes have been implemented world-wide and locally to alleviate the negative impact of sedentary lifestyles and emissions associated with car-centric transport (Gallo & Marinelli, 2020). Bike sharing in particular has seen some global success and has led to the introduction of the ‘Beryl bike’ scheme in Portsmouth to help mitigate the impact of the car-centric society. The positive impacts of such initiatives however can only be as strong as the levels of participation within communities. For this reason, this study explores the public perceptions of cycling and participation of Beryl within Portsmouth.
To investigate the public perceptions and participation of Beryl, the triangulation method was selected. A literature review was conducted to gain an in-depth understanding of the driving factors within bike-sharing schemes and to determine comparable European cities, elevation being used as the metric, to establish key success factors of bike-sharing schemes. Secondary data within the literature provided further context within Portsmouth’s current active mobility landscape and active mobility policy in the city. Primary data in the form of a public questionnaire was used to support the secondary data and literature regarding driving factors for bike-sharing participation and to research barriers to participation. A semi-structured interview was utilised to explore the processes and planning required to improve active mobility participation.
The questionnaire found that 28.6% of respondents were not aware of Beryl bikes at all whilst 75.6% of participants have never used Beryl before. Within this data, 52.9% of non-bike-sharing users attribute their lack of participation to ‘lack of awareness’. The findings of research suggest that there are barriers to active mobility participation in Portsmouth that can be addressed through sufficient planning.

Course: Property Development - BSc - U0704PYC

Date Deposited: 2024-08-14

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14445.html