India is notorious for its traffic congestion, especially the major urban areas, including Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. With every passing year, the number of people out on their personal vehicles keeps rising, which is clogging up the streets. To make matters worse, India is also one of the most polluted countries on earth. Both these factors, combined, have created an urgency to get as many personal vehicles off the road as possible. Thankfully, the concepts of ride sharing, ride-hailing, carsharing, and car rental have emerged, which are encouraging people to shift to shared transportation.
Another similar, cost-effective option for short distances is sharing a two-wheeler, such as a bike (bicycle), scooter, or motorcycle. In a recent analysis, P&S Intelligence found that the two-wheeler sharing market in India is on path to witnessing massive growth, from $31.1 million in 2019 to $94.0 million by 2025, at a 20.2% CAGR during 2020–2025. There are several advantages of availing of such services, especially for the middle class, which makes up for a large chunk of the country’s huge population. First, people don’t need to buy personal vehicles, which otherwise incur high purchase costs, maintenance charges, insurance premiums, and, in many places, parking expenses.
Not to forget the prices of diesel and gasoline (petrol, as it is called in the country), which have been on a continuous upward spiral for quite some time now. This is another reason people in the nation are shunning their personal automobiles and going for shared mobility services, to save money as well as time. While, for longer distances, cabs and conventional four-wheeler taxis are the primary choice, the two-wheeler sharing concept is becoming popular for short and medium distances. This is because, for the same distance and journey duration, riding a two-wheeler can be up to 60% cheaper than calling a cab.
The motorcycle/scooter sharing services available in India are themselves of three types: rental, sharing, and bike taxi, among which bike taxi has the most takers, as these services save the user the trouble of driving; the driving part is taken care of by a designated driver, who is employed or contracted by the service provider. Though two-wheeler sharing services are rather popular, a wide gap exists in the number of people, based on gender, availing of these. Men are the dominant users of these services, as, due to safety concerns, very few women choose to ride behind a strange person. However, steps are being taken to enhance the safety aspect of these rides for females.
Hence, with more people shelving their personal vehicles and the confidence of women in the safety profile of the concept increasing, the demand for two-wheeler sharing services in India would witness massive growth in the next five years.
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