Public Bike Share Research Articles

Effects of Mobi’s equity initiatives on public bike share access and use

Since its launch, Vancouver’s public bike share system has implemented changes to reduce barriers, enhance uptake, and make bike sharing more equitable. These include hiring an equity coordinator, expanding the service area, adding e-bikes to the fleet, reducing the age eligibility, reducing financial barriers through their Community Pass, and partnering with community organizations. We used a mixed methods study design to assess the impact of these initiatives on access to and use of public bike share. We found that the service area expansion reduced inequities in spatial access by socioeconomic status, age, and race, but higher socioeconomic status and white populations continue to have better access. Our analysis of system and survey data, and interviews with community organizations, revealed how the Community Pass is enhancing transport justice by expanding the benefits of bike share and improving access to opportunities for more diverse populations.

Comparing e-bike and conventional bicycle use patterns in a public bike share system: A case study of Richmond, VA

Bicycle-sharing systems have emerged as a viable transportation alternative in numerous urban areas, owing to their multifaceted benefits. These benefits include reduced transportation expenses, health improvements, and decreased emission levels. While extensive research has been conducted on travel behaviors in shared bicycle systems, there is currently a lack of research on travel behaviors changes with the introduction of e-bikes. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the similarities and differences between e-bike (pedelec) and conventional bicycle use in a bike share system in Richmond City, Virginia.The results show that pedelecs are generally associated with longer trip distances, shorter trip times, higher speeds, and lower rates of uphill elevation change. The origin–destination analysis considering the business, mixed use, residential, and other uses shows extremely similar trends, with a large number of trips staying within either business or residential locations or mixed use. The roadway use analysis shows that pedelecs are used farther outside of the city than bikes.

Investigating Safety in Numbers in Cycling After the Entry of Dock-Based Bikeshare Programs in Three U.S. Cities

This paper investigates the safety in numbers effect in cycling by comparing monthly bicycle crash trends before and after public bikeshare’s launch in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, PA, from 2010 to 2019, and in Portland, OR, from 2014 to 2019. To estimate the bicycle crash trend in each city, the authors conduct time series analysis with a regression discontinuity design using generalized linear quasi-Poisson models. The entries of dock-based public bikeshare programs signal an increase in biking activity on the road and serve as the point of discontinuity in the analysis. For each city, the analysis models pre- and post-bikeshare bicycle crash trends inside and outside bikeshare program’s service area separately to compare crash trends at different biking activity levels within the same local context. Results show that before bikeshare, crash trends inside and outside service areas had similar patterns in Philadelphia and Portland while moving in opposite directions in Pittsburgh. The post-bikeshare crash trends differed across cities for both inside and outside of the service areas. The finding that bicycle crash trends changed in different patterns across the three cities indicates that there may be no single safety in numbers effect on bicycle crashes. The inconsistent patterns of bicycle crash trends within and across cities suggest confounding factors underlying the change in bicycle crashes.

Review on public bike share schemes in large developing cities: A case study of Delhi, India

In recent years bike share schemes have become increasingly popular in developing countries. Many cities have initiated bike-sharing schemes to promote sustainable mobility, increase bicycle usage, and enhance public transport's first and last-mile connectivity options. During the last few years, India also experienced a boom in bike-sharing schemes. However, unlike developed countries in Europe and America, limited research is available on bike-share schemes in developing countries like India. As a result, these countries face many problems in planning, designing, and operating bike-share schemes. This article considered Delhi a case study to address some of these problems and contribute to India's knowledge of bike-share schemes. The study considered different bike-share scheme operations in Delhi to analyse the bike-share characteristics and evaluate their impact on bike-share usage and ridership. Further, spatial analysis of bike-share schemes was also conducted to analyse the accessibility of bike stations to other facilities such as public transport systems, points of interest and their impact on bike-share usage and ridership. Moreover, a user-based survey was conducted to understand bike-share users' socioeconomic, trip characteristics, and preferences. Furthermore, a swot analysis was conducted to explore the city's strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for operating bike-share schemes. Finally, based on the evaluation of bike-share schemes in Delhi, the study proposed various planning and policy-level recommendations to improve the bike-sharing schemes in similar size cities in developing countries like India.

Changes in Urban Mobility Related to the Public Bike System with Regard to Weather Conditions and Statutory Retail Restrictions

The main purpose of the paper is to determine changes in transport behaviour of users of the public bike-share (PBS) scheme in a large Polish city, Łódź. By tracking GPS signals for individual trips taken by PBS users, it was possible to analyse their changeability (time and spatial) for periods before the implementation of statutory Sunday retail restrictions (2017) and after their partial introduction (2018). The study also took into account weather conditions, namely maximum and minimum daily temperatures and daily totals of precipitation recorded by a weather station in Łodź. In order to determine the correlations between certain weather conditions and PBS trips, the authors applied regression analysis. The results of the study showed that weekend cycling is less susceptible to the impact of weather than cycling on weekdays. At the same time, a comparative analysis of trading and non-trading Sundays proved that, during Sundays with retail restrictions, public bikes were used for longer, farther, and slower trips. These observations were confirmed by analyses of maps of traffic structure.

Subscription and casual customers’ differential sensitivity to meteorological characteristics

Although meteorological conditions (temperature, humidity, windspeed, seasons and the like) extend observable ubiquitous influence on our purchase and consumption behavior, however, due to ancillary nature of its influences, only recently it has attracted interest among marketing scholars. Mood account, psychological bias account, product-weather association account along with others are proposed in the literature to explain why meteorological conditions influence consumption behavior. Adding to that discourse, this research by showing that subscription customers and casual customers show different responsiveness levels toward similar meteorological conditions, builds a case for acquired (learning) account of meteorological influences. Analyzing public bikeshare (PBS) data, this research finds that daily aggregate subscription ridership variations are relatively more sensitive to weather situation changes (i.e., temperature, humidity, wind-speed, seasons) than casual ridership variations. The observed non-uniform sensitivity levels suggest that consumers tend to associate weather conditions with corresponding usage benefits, and that association is richer in case of higher usage levels. Because subscription customers usage levels tend to be higher, pertinent associations can be richer, and consequently responsiveness can be higher as well. The findings are obtained after accounting for the possible non-linear influences of the changes in the meteorological variables on daily aggregate ridership behavior. Based on the findings, this research presents a CAPM based risk management metric for mitigating temperature linked variation in demand.

Successes and failures of built environment interventions: Using concept mapping to assess stakeholder perspectives in four Canadian cities.

Healthy communities can be supported through built environment interventions that redesign cities for improved health outcomes. Understanding the context of these interventions is critical for assessing how an intervention impacts population health; such context is often poorly documented. This study uses concept mapping to capture stakeholders' perspectives on the factors that influence the success and failure of built environment interventions across cities. The INTErventions, Research, and Action in Cities Team (INTERACT) research program undertook concept mapping exercises related to interventions in four Canadian cities: public bike share program (Vancouver); a cycling network (Victoria); a bus rapid transit program (Saskatoon); and interventions related to the Montreal Sustainability Plan (Montreal). Concept mapping synthesised stakeholder perceptions and Go zones were used to prioritise factors based on importance and feasibility. Resulting themes were integrated into implementation science frameworks. Across four cities, 95 stakeholders participated. An average of 38 factors were identified in each city, resulting in 5 emerging clusters in Victoria and Montreal and 6 clusters in Vancouver and Saskatoon. Clusters covered domains of economic and political context, intervention planning, equity considerations, user experience, and stakeholder engagement. Common across all cities was the importance of stakeholder engagement. Concerns for citizen safety were prominent in Victoria, Vancouver, and Saskatoon. Interventions in Saskatoon and Vancouver were related to programs, and reliability of service and ease of use emerged. Go zones highlighted 2-5 items in each city, which can inform priority actions. Our study provides stakeholders' collective thinking on the contextual factors that influence the success and failure of built environment interventions. Organising context within an implementation science framework can provide a common language to synthesise stakeholder perspectives across settings. Go zone items can inform city-specific priority actions to support a common vision around implementing built environment interventions in pursuit of designing equitable and healthy cities.

Motor-vehicle drivers’ behavioral response to increased bicycle traffic

Introduction: This paper investigates whether motor-vehicle driver behavior changes when there are more bicycles on the road. Method: Data on trips on a rapidly expanding public bike share scheme in Chicago are combined with speed violations captured by a network of 79 cameras. Using weekly data from July 2014 to December 2016, violations at 26 sites where there was a considerable increase in bicycle traffic are compared with a control group of 53 locations where rental bicycles are not available. Results: An increase in rental bicycle usage is statistically related to a reduction in the number of speeding violations, with an estimated elasticity of −0.04. Conclusion: The increased presence of bicyclists makes at least some motorists drive more cautiously. Practical Application: This research provides some insight into the mechanism behind the observed reduction in crash rates as bicyclists become more numerous. Some motorists moderate their speeds allowing more time to avoid collisions and a reduction in the severity of the vehicle-bicyclist collisions that still occur.

Identification of Enablers and Barriers for Public Bike Share System Adoption using Social Media and Statistical Models

Public bike share (PBS) systems are meant to be a sustainable urban mobility solution in areas where different travel options and the practice of active transport modes can diminish the need on the vehicle and decrease greenhouse gas emission. Although PBS systems have been included in transportation plans in the last decades experiencing an important development and growth, it is crucial to know the main enablers and barriers that PBS systems are facing to reach their goals. In this paper, first, sentiment analysis techniques are applied to user generated content (UGC) in social media comments (Facebook, Twitter and TripAdvisor) to identify these enablers and barriers. This analysis provides a set of explanatory variables that are combined with data from official statistics and the PBS observatory in Spain. As a result, a statistical model that assesses the connection between PBS use and certain characteristics of the PBS systems, utilizing sociodemographic, climate, and positive and negative opinion data extracted from social media is developed. The outcomes of the research work show that the identification of the main enablers and barriers of PBS systems can be effectively achieved following the research method and tools presented in the paper. The findings of the research can contribute to transportation planners to uncover the main factors related to the adoption and use of PBS systems, by taking advantage of publicly available data sources.

Who are the 'super-users' of public bike share? An analysis of public bike share members in Vancouver, BC.

Public bike share programs have been critiqued for serving those who already bicycle, or more well-off individuals who already have a multitude of transportation options. While substantial research focuses on characteristics of public bike share members, it often overlooks their intensity of use which may relate more directly to transport and health gains. In this study we link system data with member survey data to characterize “super-users” of Vancouver's public bike share system. We used system data from September 1, 2016–August 31, 2017 to calculate member-specific trip rates (trips/month). We linked system data to demographic and travel data for members who completed an online survey in 2017 (1232 members who had made 89,945 trips). We defined super-users as those who made 20 or more trips/month. We used a logistic regression to model demographic and travel characteristics associated with super-users as compared to regular users. Of the 1232 members, 204 were super-users. Super-users made 47% of the trips and had a median trip rate of 29.3 trips/month. In adjusted models, super-users were more likely to be young, male, have household incomes below $75,000, and live and work near bike share docking stations. Super-users had fewer transportation options than regular users, with lower odds of having a personal bike or car share membership. Amongst members, we found a distinct demographic profile for super-users relative to regular users, suggesting that usage is an important consideration when quantifying transport and health gains, and the resulting equity implications of public bike share programs.

Assessing service and price sensitivities, and pivot elasticities of public bikeshare system users through monadic design and ordered logit regression

Pricing is one of the major factors that affects ridership and revenue of the bikeshare systems. This paper examines bikeshare users' sensitivity to changes in price and preferences on service by conducting an intercept survey at Capital Bikeshare (CaBi) stations. Monadic price testing approach was used to design survey questions and elicit responses on sensitivity of users to price changes in fare products. Ordered logit regression results indicated that higher household income groups and ‘White’ users are less sensitive to price compared to other income groups and other races/ethnicities, respectively. An illustrative application of the demand curves is presented, which showed that low-income groups are more sensitive to price than the middle and high-income groups. White users were found to be approximately 20% less price sensitive than other races for both casual users purchasing single-trips and annual members. The price elasticities revealed that females are about 30% and 10% more price sensitive than males for single-trip fare (STF) and annual membership, respectively. Also, sightseeing trips are 30% less price sensitive than work trips for STF purchasers. An illustrative application of income-based elasticities indicated that reducing the STF to $1.50 from the current $2.00 per trip and annual membership to $73.00 (from $85 per year) were found to improve both ridership and revenue. It is expected that the contributions from this study would provide insights and guidance on evaluating future pricing policy changes at various bikeshare systems.

Travel behavior and price preferences of bikesharing members and casual users: A Capital Bikeshare perspective

Even though casual users of bikeshare account for a large share of ridership and revenue at public bikeshare systems in North America, very little is known about the characteristics and preferences of casual users and how they compare to registered members. The primary objectives of the study include identifying the similarities and differences between members and casual users along demographics, usage and indicated preferences; and examining and modeling pricing preferences of bikeshare users. An intercept survey was conducted to obtain demographic information, bikeshare usage and various preferences of Capital Bikeshare users in the metro Washington DC area. The survey data was validated against the data from an existing member survey with large sample using goodness of fit tests. Survey participants reported that single trip fare (STF) and annual membership paid at once as their preferred pricing options and a combination of STF, 24-hour pass, and annual membership with monthly installments as their favorable pricing model. Logistic regression findings indicate that, when compared to casual users, registered members are more likely to be White, earn more and reside in the D.C. area. Casual users make fewer bikeshare trips and are less sensitive to the service (station density) compared to members. Gender, age and income distribution do not appear to influence casual fare product choice. Results from this study are useful in policy-making, planning and operations for bikeshare systems.

Helmet Use Among Personal Bicycle Riders and Bike Share Users in Vancouver, BC

Public bike share users have low prevalence of helmet use, and few public bike share systems make helmets available. In summer 2016, a public bike share system launched in Vancouver, BC. Each bicycle is equipped with a free helmet, in response to BC's all-ages compulsory helmet law. This study assessed the prevalence of helmet use among adult cyclists on personal and public bicycles in Vancouver. A survey of adult cyclists (age estimated at ≥16 years) at five screen line sites and at 15 public bike share docking stations was conducted. Observations were made on fair weather days in 2016. Observers recorded the gender of the rider, bicycle type, helmet use, and helmet type. In 2016, multivariable logistic regression was used to calculate the odds of helmet use by personal and trip characteristics. Observers conducted 87.5 hours of observation and recorded 11,101 cyclists. They observed 10,704 (96.4%) cyclists on personal bicycles and 397 (3.6%) public bicycle users. Overall, the prevalence of helmet use was 78.1% (n=8,670/11,101), higher for personal bicycle riders (78.6%, n=8,416/10,704) than bike share users (64.0%, n=254/397). Helmet use was associated with gender, bicycle facility type, and day and time of travel. In a city with all-ages helmet legislation, helmet use is high but differs across infrastructure types and cyclist characteristics. Bike share systems could increase helmet use by providing complementary helmets coupled with supportive measures.

Current Efforts to Make Bikeshare More Equitable: Survey of System Owners and Operators

The number of public bikeshare systems has been increasing rapidly across the United States over the past 5 to 10 years. To date, most academic research around bikeshare systems in the United States has focused on the logistics of planning and operationalizing successful systems. Investigations of system users and effects on the local community are less common, and studies that are focused on efforts to engage underserved communities in bikeshare systems are rarer still. This paper relies on a survey of representatives from 56 U.S. bikeshare systems to better understand and document current approaches toward serving low-income and minority populations. The survey asked about equity policies and metrics, the degree to which equity considerations affect a variety of system practices, what the existing barriers to utilizing bikeshare are for target populations, and what challenges the bikeshare system entity faces in addressing those barriers. Results indicate that nearly one in four bikeshare systems has written policies around equity; nearly half of bikeshare systems with more than 500 bikes have such policies. However, many more systems consider equity in various aspects of their systems. Equity considerations affected station siting, fee structure and payment systems, and promotion and marketing in a majority of systems (68%, 72%, and 57%, respectively), and operations and data collection and analysis, though to a lesser extent (42% each). Bikeshare systems reported cost, access, and outreach as the largest barriers to equity, in addition to overall funding and staff levels.

Factors influencing the choice of shared bicycles and shared electric bikes in Beijing

China leads the world in both public bikeshare and private electric bike (e-bike) growth. Current trajectories indicate the viability of deploying large-scale shared e-bike (e-bikeshare) systems in China. We employ a stated preference survey and multinomial logit to model the factors influencing the choice to switch from an existing transportation mode to bikeshare or e-bikeshare in Beijing. Demand is influenced by distinct sets of factors: the bikeshare choice is most sensitive to measures of effort and comfort while the e-bikeshare choice is more sensitive to user heterogeneities. Bikeshare demand is strongly negatively impacted by trip distance, temperature, precipitation, and poor air quality. User demographics however do not factor strongly on the bikeshare choice, indicating the mode will draw users from across the social spectrum. The e-bikeshare choice is much more tolerant of trip distance, high temperatures and poor air quality, though precipitation is also a highly negative factor. User demographics do play a significant role in e-bikeshare demand. Analysis of impact to the existing transportation system finds that both bikeshare and e-bikeshare will tend to draw users away from the “unsheltered modes”, walk, bike, and e-bike. Although it is unclear if shared bikes are an attractive “first-and-last-mile solution”, it is clear that e-bikeshare is attractive as a bus replacement.

Effects of built environment and weather on bike sharing demand: a station level analysis of commercial bike sharing in Toronto

Bike Share Toronto is Canada’s second largest public bike share system. It provides a unique case study as it is one of the few bike share programs located in a relatively cold North American setting, yet operates throughout the entire year. Using year-round historical trip data, this study analyzes the factors affecting Toronto’s bike share ridership. A comprehensive spatial analysis provides meaningful insights on the influences of socio-demographic attributes, land use and built environment, as well as different weather measures on bike share ridership. Empirical models also reveal significant effects of road network configuration (intersection density and spatial dispersion of stations) on bike sharing demands. The effect of bike infrastructure (bike lane, paths etc.) is also found to be crucial in increasing bike sharing demand. Temporal changes in bike share trip making behavior were also investigated using a multilevel framework. The study reveals a significant correlation between temperature, land use and bike share trip activity. The findings of the paper can be translated to guidelines with the aim of increasing bike share activity in urban centers.

Global bike share: What the data tells us about road safety

IntroductionBike share has emerged as a rapidly growing mode of transport in over 800 cities globally, up from just a handful in the 1990s. Some analysts had forecast a rise in the number of bicycle crashes after the introduction of bike share, but empirical research on bike share safety is rare. The goal of this study is to examine the impact of bike share programs on cycling safety. MethodsThe paper has two substudies. Study 1 was a secondary analysis of longitudinal hospital injury data from the Graves et al. (2014) study. It compared cycling safety in cities that introduced bike share programs with cities that did not. Study 2 combined ridership data with crash data of selected North American and European cities to compare bike share users to other cyclists. ResultsStudy 1 indicated that the introduction of a bike share system was associated with a reduction in cycling injury risk. Study 2 found that bike share users were less likely than other cyclists to sustain fatal or severe injuries. ConclusionsOn a per kilometer basis, bike share is associated with decreased risk of both fatal and non-fatal bicycle crashes when compared to private bike riding. Practical ApplicationsThe results of this study suggest that concerns of decreased levels of cycling safety are unjustified and should not prevent decision makers from introducing public bike share schemes, especially if combined with other safety measures like traffic calming.

Bikeshare in China as a public service: Comparing government‐run and public‐private partnership operation models

AbstractChina is now the world leader in public bikeshare systems (PBS) with more bikes and stations in use than the rest of the world combined. The rapid rise of PBS as a viable urban transport option in China has taken place since Hangzhou introduced the first system in 2008 and it has been driven by the desire to address sustainability challenges. Chinese municipal governments have heavily subsidized the development of PBS to encourage non‐motorized transport and offer a flexible, convenient, and low‐cost mobility options to the people. As a subsidized public service, PBS in China has been constructed and operated either under a government‐run (GR) model and public‐private partnership (PPP) model. This paper analyzes the effects of these two operation models on PBS performance and concludes that GR systems have been more effective than PPP systems in achieving higher bike utilization, ridership, and population served. The paper explores the reasons for these differences and finds that the financial incentive structure under the PPP model often leads to results that have conflicts of interest between private companies and the government. GR systems, on the contrary, are much more effective than PBS systems and they are under official transport agencies that are accountable to following the government's desire to make PBS function as a viable transport option instead of a profit‐making business.

Characterising group-cycling journeys using interactive graphics

The group-cycling behaviours of over 16,000 members of the London Cycle Hire Scheme (LCHS), a large public bikeshare system, are identified and analysed. Group journeys are defined as trips made by two or more cyclists together in space and time. Detailed insights into group-cycling behaviour are generated using specifically designed visualization software. We find that in many respects group-cycle journeys fit an expected pattern of discretionary activity: group journeys are more likely at weekends, late evenings and lunchtimes; they generally take place within more pleasant parts of the city; and between individuals apparently known to each other. A separate set of group activity is found, however, that coincides with commuting peaks and that appears to be imposed onto LCHS users by the scheme’s design. Studying the characteristics of individuals making group journeys, we identify a group of less experienced LCHS cyclists that appear to make more spatially extensive journeys than they would do normally while cycling with others; and that female cyclists are more likely to make late evening journeys when cycling in groups. For 20% of group cyclists, the first journey ever made through the LCHS was a group journey; this is particularly surprising since just 9% of all group cyclists’ journeys are group journeys. Moreover, we find that women are very significantly (p<0.001) overrepresented amongst these ‘first time group cyclists’. Studying the bikeshare cyclists, or bike share ‘friends’, that individuals make ‘first time group journeys’ with, we find a significantly high incidence (p<0.001) of group journeys being made with friends of the opposite gender, and for a very large proportion (55%) of members these first ever journeys are made with a friend that shares the same postcode. A substantial insight, then, is that group cycling appears to be a means through which early LCHS usage is initiated.

Identifying the Leaders

With increasing recognition of the potential and accrued benefits for mobility, health, and the environment, public bikeshare programs are growing in popularity globally. Any city planning to launch a program will be keenly interested in understanding who may use it to enable strategic marketing that will facilitate quick uptake and adoption. The diffusion of innovation theory was applied to data from a population-based telephone survey to characterize who would be most likely to use a new public bikeshare program. A telephone survey of 901 residents of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, was conducted before the launch of Vancouver's public bikeshare program. Results showed that a majority [ n = 614/901, 69.1%; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 66.3%, 72.7%] of respondents thought that a public bikeshare program was a good idea; however, only one-quarter ( n = 217/901, 24.2%; 95% CI = 21.1%, 27.3%) said that they would be likely or very likely to use the program. Logistic regression identified characteristics associated with higher and lower likelihood of use, which were used to create an adoption curve that defines population segments anticipated to be the leaders in adopting the program. The theory was used to develop implementation recommendations to maximize program uptake, including ensuring that the program would have tangible advantages over driving and transit, would be affordable and easy to try, would integrate with transit and carshare opportunities, and would appeal to social trends such as environmental responsibility. These results can assist planning and promotion in cities set to launch public bikeshare programs.