• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
• /
• v.51 no.1
• /
• pp.89-108
• /
• 2016

This paper aims to illustrate how the third generation bike sharing schemes (BSS) are operated in Korea and identify the possible factors that have made cities to adopt and maintain BSS successfully in Korea. For this, the paper selects the case of Nubija in Changwon as the representative and the most successful BSS case in Korea. It identifies three major factors that have made the city to adopt Nubija. First, Nubija was initiated as a part of the bigger project of 'Environmental Capital' aiming to develop the city as a world class green city attempted by the city government. Second, the mayor's willingness to learn and adopt European model cities of environmental capital and green transportation played a decisive role in developing Nubija. Third, the city government was able to implement BSS policy in a top-down manner so the policy process was relatively speedy and effective. Also Nubijia became a stable policy because the city has gained international reputation as a Korea's representative green city, and as a result, the city's BSS policy has passed the point of no return. In the future, channels should be made for active citizen participation in the decision making process of Nubija so that they can cooperate with the city government to develop Nubija further.