Open Access Conference Proceedings

In recent years, a high development of the length of bicycle paths in Polish cities can be observed. Along with their increase, there are also many elements of road infrastructure that improve the safety and comfort of traveling cyclists in cities. Parallel to improving traffic conditions, bike-sharing systems are developing. Operators and organizers of this form of transport in cities are introducing new offers consisting in lowering toll prices or introducing special tariffs for offered services. In Poland, bike-sharing systems are also being integrated between different cities. All this increases the share of bicycle users (including those with bikesharing systems) in urban traffic. The article presents suggestions for using the bike-sharing systems as means of transport for carrying out tourist trips around the city and factors affecting the possibility of using city bikes in tourism. The study was conducted in Wroclaw in October 2019. The article analyses the distance between bike-sharing systems stations and several key tourist points located in Wroclaw. A total of 21 tourist points was selected for analysis. The collected information also presents the distance separating tourist points from each other and the travel times between them using bicycles. The results of the conducted research indicate the potential to use bike-sharing systems in the aspect of urban tourism, presenting the strengths and weaknesses of this solution. The current location of bicycle stations around the analysed tourist attractions allows to travel the entire route in a cost-free option which, from the point of view of the possibility of incurring costs resulting from moving quickly around the city, can be very beneficial for tourists.

Keywords: Bike-sharing systems, tourist transport

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