Impact of pricing and transit disruptions on bikeshare ridership and revenue

Abstract

Bikeshare operators routinely explore options to improve ridership and revenue by studying interaction among pricing, service and operations. The objective of this research is to study the impact of introducing a new $2 fare for single-trip on revenue and ridership at Capital Bikeshare (CaBi) in the metro Washington DC region. The single-trip fare (STF) at CaBi is one of the three fare products aimed at casual users—the other two being 24-h pass and 3-day pass. STF was introduced inconjuction with SafeTrack, which is a major Metrorail track maintenance program intiated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. The impact analysis of STF includes studying the influence of SafeTrack on CaBi ridership. The analysis was based on revenue and ridership data before and after the implementation of STF and weather data for the region. The results showed that the first-time casual members increased by as much as 79% immediately after the introduction of STF, along with an overall increase in ridership. Jurisdiction-level analysis indicated a statistically significant increase in casual user ridership for identical 12-month periods before and after the introduction of STF. However, the analysis indicated that the impact of STF on revenue from casual users before and after STF at jurisdiction-level was inconclusive. As would be expected, the launch of STF, which is a casual fare product, did not impact ridership and revenue of monthly and annual registered members. Sensitivity analysis of ridership to rail transit disruptions due to SafeTrack indicated that there was a statistically significant increase in ridership by registered members and casual users at the CaBi stations affected by SafeTrack. The concurrency of STF launch with SafeTrack may have played a role in this increase. For, the new fare product created an opportunity for commuters to try CaBi as an alternative travel mode at an affordable price that is compatible with transit fare during transit service disruptions. However, the analysis did not present any evidence on the sustained nature of CaBi ridership increase attributable to SafeTrack. The methods used in this research are helpful for bikeshare operators to model changes in ridership and revenue from attributable to pricing structure.