Bike-sharing systems and health

Interest in urban cycling is increasing, and the number of bike-sharing programs has grown rapidly over the last 10 years or so. Bike-sharing programs have existed for almost 50 years, but the recent change in the technology used and interest in more active and livable cities has a more widespread use of the programs. The benefits of bike sharing are flexible mobility, emission reductions, physical activity benefits, reduced congestion and fuel use, individual financial savings, and support for multimodal transport connections. Numerous studies have shown beneficial health impacts of bike-sharing systems (BSSs) that have led to considerable reduction in, for example, premature mortality. However, BSSs users do not use helmets very often, and they are not a representative sample of the general population. BSSs are facing many challenges and opportunities, that should be tackled to improve their health benefits, such as provide more equally distributed bikes throughout the population, increase the use of helmets, and being able to attract more users from private motorized modes such as cars or motorcycles. In general BSSs should be seen as a tool for public health promotion and prevention.