A spatial-temporal gender and land use analysis of bikeshare ridership: The case study of Baltimore City

Abstract

Bikeshare programs are growing in popularity across the United States as cities aim to provide an alternative mode of transportation that addresses last-mile needs while promoting recreation and tourism. In fall 2016, Baltimore Bikeshare System (BBS) launched with 20 stations. Using trip data for over 17,000 trips from October to May, this study explores the temporal and spatial patterns of bikeshare use in the city. The current study has two main goals: first, exploring the influence of socio-demographic factors on travel patterns of Baltimore's bikeshare ridership, and second, evaluating possible relationships between gender and land use in terms of origin/destination stations of their trips. The methodology of this study was based on statistical analysis including ANOVA, and binary and multinomial logistic regression models. The results of the study include several findings. First, the travel pattern of riders differs according to the status of their memberships, the day of week, and the land use of where they started and ended their trip. Second, there is a large gender difference among BBS membership users, and males are the dominate users. Finally, females tended to have more recreational trips and start and end their trips from/to the same station when compared to male riders.