Bikeshare for Everyone? Views of Residents in Lower-Income Communities of Color

Bike share has the potential to provide a relatively low cost means of recreation and active transportation, which can provide increased mobility, physical activity, and connections to transit, jobs, and social activities. However, bike share systems and stations are often not placed in lower-income neighborhoods and communities of color. When bike share is available in these neighborhoods, use by these residents is often low. To better understand how people in these communities view bike share, the authors examine survey responses from 779 residents in lower-income communities of color in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn (New York) that had intensive outreach efforts promoting bike share. The findings suggest that many residents in these communities, regardless of race or income, view bike share as a positive thing for their neighborhood, and many are interested in trying bike share. However, both people of color and lower-income residents face more barriers to using bike share and bicycling in general. These barriers must be addressed if bike share is to serve these communities equitably. Concerns about the cost of bike share and liability for the bikes are among the top barriers for lower-income respondents and respondents of color. Even when programs exist to address these barriers, lack of knowledge about their existence (and about how to use the system generally) can pose considerable barriers. Traffic safety concerns were also a top barrier to bicycling regardless of race or income.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANF20 Standing Committee on Bicycle Transportation.
• Authors:
  • McNeil, Nathan
  • Dill, Jennifer
  • MacArthur, John
  • Broach, Joseph
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 19p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bicycle travel; Equity; Location; Low income groups; Race; Ridesharing
• Geographic Terms: Brooklyn (New York, New York); Chicago (Illinois); Philadelphia (Pennsylvania)
• Subject Areas: Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01663560
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-03737
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 22 2018 11:56AM