Comparing the Temporal Determinants of Dockless Scooter-share and Station-based Bike-share in Washington, D.C.

Abstract

Abstract Dockless, or free-floating mobility has gained unprecedented popularity in the last year, from being virtually non-existent in 2017 to facilitating over 38.5 million trips in 2018. Hitherto, few studies have analyzed dockless micromobility, and scooter-share particularly using big data. This paper analyzes and compares the determinants of dockless scooters-share (DSS) and of station-based bike-share (SBBS) rides in D.C. It made use of API data from dockless vendors and historical trip data from Capital Bikeshare from December 2018 to June 2019. Two variables were estimated: hourly number of trips and hourly median duration of trips. A negative-binomial regression model was performed at the hourly scale controlling for environmental and economic variables including weather-related data, gasoline prices, local events or disturbances, day of week, and time of day. Four groups were analyzed: all of micromobility combined and weighed, SBBS members, SBBS non-members, and DSS. Three important findings emerged: (1) Temporal use differences between the three user groups were found, but DSS users behave most similarly to SBBS non-members. (2) Weather is less of a disutility for DSS users than for SBBS users. We attribute this to the physical ease of using a scooter and to the convenience of ending a trip at the actual destination rather than a nearby docking station. (3) All micromobility user types are sensitive to changing gas prices, although DSS users appear slightly more sensitive both in terms of trip count and duration. Additionally, an analysis of the interaction between modes found a possible competition between DSS and SBBS non-members and a complementary relationship between DSS and SBBS members. We conclude that significant differences exist between the two modes, and combined with its sudden and rising popularity, micromobility and DSS in particular could have a major role in promoting a shift towards low-carbon mobility.