Associations between Public Transit Usage and Bikesharing Behaviors in The United States

Yuanyuan Zhang,Yuming Zhang

doi:10.3390/su10061868

Abstract

Public bikesharing systems have rapidly expanded across many cities in the United States (US). Previous studies in the literature found that, in general, bikesharing is associated with public transit ridership. However, the interdependencies between public transit usage and bikesharing behaviors have been mixed and have not been fully understood. Therefore, the objective of this research is to examine the associations between the frequency of public transit usage and the probability and frequency of bikesharing usage in the US using data from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey. The respondents were asked how many times they had used public transit and bikesharing in the last 30 days. Zero-inflated negative binomial regression models were conducted to assess the associations between the frequency of public transit usage and the probability and frequency of bikesharing usage. The results show that, in general, a one-unit increase in the frequency of public transit usage is significantly associated with a 4.0% increase in the probability of bikesharing usage and a 1.4% increase in the frequency of bikesharing usage. The significantly positive relationship between the frequency of public transit usage and the frequency of bikesharing usage is more pronounced among those living in areas with higher population density or with rail service. The empirical results demonstrate that public transit usage is significantly positively associated with bikesharing usage, and suggest policy implications that improving public transit usage tends to increase the usage of bikesharing. This study also provides significant empirical evidence for the formulation of interventions and policies targeting to promote integrated transportation systems that support multimodal transportation and mutually sustainable transport networks.

Highlights

Bikesharing systems are called public bicycle systems, in which bicycles are available at docking stations that are located throughout a city for shared use
Locating bikesharing stations in areas with more residential population tends to lead to more bikesharing usage [33], so we conducted Zero-inflated negative binomial regression models (ZINB) models to examine how the associations between bikesharing and public transit usage vary by population density at home location
Noland et al [33] found that, in New York City, bikesharing stations that are located near subway stations saw higher bikesharing ridership, so we conducted ZINB models to examine how the relationship between bikesharing and public transit usage varies by rail service status at home location

Summary

Introduction

Bikesharing systems are called public bicycle systems, in which bicycles are available at docking stations that are located throughout a city for shared use. The systems provide publicly available bicycles to customers for temporary rental and allow for users to borrow a bicycle from any nearby station and to return it to another station with an available dock belonging to the system. Due to the development of IT and mobile IT devices, bikesharing systems have rapidly expanded throughout the world over the last decade [2,3]. Bikesharing programs have numerous benefits, offering flexible mobility by providing alternatives to active transportation; reducing car usage and emissions; contributing to healthy living and physical activity benefits; reducing the incidence of various diseases (e.g., diabetes and obesity); reducing fuel

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