Bike share in Fargo, North Dakota: Keys to success and factors affecting ridership

Abstract

The growing popularity of bike share programs in the United States has prompted many cities to implement bike share systems to enhance mobility and health in their communities. While many of these programs have been introduced in large cities, and existing research has tended to focus on these large systems, bike share programs are becoming increasingly popular in smaller cities as well. Great Rides Bike Share launched with 11 stations and 101 bikes in 2015 in Fargo, North Dakota. This is one of the smaller systems in the United States, but it has been very successful. This study examines the ridership data for Great Rides Bike Share during its first two years of operations, investigates it keys to success, and estimates impacts of weather, temporal, and spatial variables on bike share use. In terms of trips per bike per day, bike share usage in Fargo surpasses that of the largest programs in the country. Keys to its success were the presence of a college campus and the reduced barriers to use for college students. The ridership model showed that temperatures, wind, precipitation, and the location of stations on a college campus all have significant impacts on bikes share use.