Bike-Sharing Audit: What the Report Actually Concludes
Read the following excerpt from a municipal audit report and answer the questions that follow.
When Valmara launched its docked bike-sharing network in 2019, the stated aim was to cut short car trips: 40% of journeys under three kilometres. Five years on, the network records 2.1 million rides a year, but only 18% of users say they would otherwise have driven. The rest previously walked, cycled on their own bikes, or used trams. Meanwhile, operating costs have risen to €4.6 million annually against €1.1 million in fares and advertising. The audit office concludes that the scheme has improved the visibility of cycling in the city and reduced crowding on two tram lines, but that it has not delivered the modal shift it promised. Officials dispute the framing, noting that the contract was renegotiated in 2022 and that the 40% target was never revised.
1. Which statement best expresses the main idea of the excerpt? Explain why the most tempting alternatives are wrong.
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The main idea is the audit office's qualified verdict: the scheme delivered secondary benefits (visibility for cycling, less crowding on two tram lines) but did not achieve its core objective of shifting short journeys out of cars.
Why alternatives fail:
- The scheme has failed - too absolute. The report explicitly credits two benefits and never recommends closure.
- The scheme is a success - ignores the central finding on modal shift, which is the stated aim.
- Costs exceed revenue, so the scheme is unsustainable - the €4.6m versus €1.1m figures support the verdict but are not the verdict; the passage never treats subsidy as disqualifying.
- Officials dispute the audit - this is a reaction to the main idea, not the main idea itself.
Method: identify the sentence carrying the evaluative weight ('concludes that... but that it has not delivered...') and check which option preserves both halves of that contrast.
2. An official says: 'Only 18% of users would otherwise have driven, so the scheme has no environmental value.' Using only the excerpt, explain what this argument gets right and what it cannot establish.
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What it gets right: the 18% figure is stated explicitly, and it does mean that the great majority of rides did not replace a car trip. That is a legitimate challenge to a claim that the scheme cut car use substantially.
What it cannot establish: 'no environmental value' requires evidence the excerpt does not contain.
- No emissions data appear; the audit mentions reduced crowding on two tram lines, which is a real if modest benefit.
- 18% of 2.1 million rides is roughly 378,000 car trips a year avoided - not zero.
- Trips shifted from walking or private cycling are roughly neutral, but the excerpt does not say how the 2.1 million split between those modes and trams.
So the correct judgement is: the figure weakens a strong environmental claim but does not support the leap to 'no value'. The gap between the evidence given and the conclusion drawn is the test point.
3. In the excerpt, the term 'modal shift' most nearly means which of the following: (a) a change in the share of journeys made by each transport mode; (b) a change in the ticketing system; (c) a change in where users live; (d) a change in the contract terms? Justify your choice from context.
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Answer: (a).
Context clues fix the meaning. The stated aim is to 'cut short car trips', and the following sentence classifies users by their previous mode - walked, own bike, tram. The passage is therefore tracking movement between transport modes, which is exactly what 'modal shift' denotes.
Why the others fail:
- (b) ticketing: the text mentions fares only in a revenue context, never as a goal.
- (c) residence: nothing about where users live.
- (d) contract terms: the 2022 renegotiation is raised by officials as a separate dispute about targets, not as the meaning of the phrase.
Technique: when a term is abstract, let the surrounding sentences supply its operational definition. Here 'car trips', 'walked', 'cycled', 'trams' together define the domain as transport mode shares.