Impact of environment on bicycle travel demand—Assessment using bikeshare system data

Abstract

The paper aims to quantify the daily bicycle traffic volume based on the data from bicycle automatic counters and bikeshare system (BSS) trip data taking into account the impact of weather conditions. Changes in bicycle traffic were assessed based on coefficient of variation of bicycle volume and number of BSS trips. The research was conducted in the city of Cracow (Poland) for 2 years. The volume at 13 locations with bicycle automatic counters and a daily number of trips on public bicycles were avaialble. Data on daily weather conditions were collected from a weather station located in the city.The monthly coefficients of variation of the number of BSS trips and cyclists’ volume in analyzed locations are not statistically significantly different. It means data from BSS, easily to obtain, can be used to assess variation in cyclists volume. Mean daily air temperature, daily rainfall, public and school holidays had a statistically significant impact on bicycle volume. Models have shown that BSS trip data can be successfully used to evaluate the impact of weather conditions on bicycle volume. Additionally, based on the developed models, reliable coefficient of variations for Annual Average Daily Bicycle Traffic of BSS users and all cyclists were indicated.