Riding the wave: Predicting the use of the bike-sharing system in Barcelona before and during COVID-19

To simultaneously promote health, economic, and environmental sustainability, a number of cities worldwide have established bike-sharing systems (BSS) that complement the conventional public transport systems. As the rapid spread of COVID-19 becoming a global pandemic disrupted urban mobility due to government-imposed lockdowns and the heightened fear of infection in crowded spaces, populations were increasingly less likely to use public transportation and instead shifted toward alternative transport systems, including BSS. In this study, the authors use probabilistic machine learning in a quasi-experimental research design to identify how the relevance of a comprehensive set of factors to predict the use of Bicing (the BSS in Barcelona) may have changed as COVID-19 unfolded. They unpack the key factors in predicting the use of Bicing, uncovering evidence of increasing bike-related built infrastructure (e.g., tactical urbanism), trip distance, and the income levels of neighborhoods as the most relevant predictors. Moreover, the authors find that the relevance of the factors in predicting Bicing usage has generally decreased during the global pandemic, suggesting altered societal behavior. This study enhances the understanding of BSS and societal behavior, which can have important implications for developing resilient programs for cities to adopt sustainable practices through transport policy, infrastructure planning, and urban development.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2022.103929
• Record URL:
  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2210670722002517
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/22106707
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2022 Xavier Bustamante et al.
• Authors:
  • Bustamante, Xavier
  • Federo, Ryan
  • 0000-0002-3947-5463
  • Fernández-i-Marin, Xavier
  • 0000-0002-9522-8870
• Publication Date: 2022-8

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 103929
• Serial:
  • Sustainable Cities and Society
  • Volume: 83
  • Issue Number: 0
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 2210-6707
  • Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/22106707?sdc=2

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Before and after studies; Bicycle travel; Bicycles; COVID-19; Predictive models; Vehicle sharing
• Identifier Terms: Bicing (Barcelona bike sharing system)
• Geographic Terms: Barcelona (Spain)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01849505
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 24 2022 5:07PM