Characterization of a Covid-fired urban bike delivery system: The Montreal experience

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic led to a rapid change in consumers' demand for home deliveries and traditional delivery modes were unable to deliver consumers and shops due to the sudden increase in demand. This study investigates the results of a local cargo bike delivery initiative in Montreal, Canada, during the forced closure of non-essential businesses from March to May 2020. The objective of this study is to identify the variables which interacted with the performance of a cargo bike delivery initiative while considering the specific context of the Covid-19 pandemic. To assess such changing conditions, a multilevel linear regression analysis is carried out. This analysis allows to quantify the number of home deliveries while considering the impact of the number of active Covid-19 cases and sociodemographic predictors on the cargo bike initiative. The dataset covers 6,700 deliveries made by cargo bikes in the city of Montreal over 16 weeks. The results show that the presence of advertising and the characteristics of consumers' households, such as a smaller household size and a younger average age are amongst the strongest factors for the success of such initiative. The specific context of the Covid-19 pandemic allowed a better penetration of cargo bikes within the last-mile ecosystem.