Multilevel Urban Form and Bikesharing: Insights from Five Bikeshare Programs Across the United States

Bikesharing programs in their current form have been in place for several years in many cities across the United States. Encouraging people to use bikesharing for their daily routine travels has numerous social, economic, environmental, and health benefits. Therefore, it is important to understand factors influencing bikesharing usage in different urban areas in order to improve the system and encourage more use. This paper investigates how built environment at both local and regional scales influences bikesharing usage in five large metropolitan U.S. areas in the U.S. The data consists of around 9 million bike trips in over 1,500 stations over a one-year period. Regression models are built to predict the number of trips originated from each station with respect to the station’s built environment pattern, as well as the overall urban form in the entire city. The results are consistent with previous research on the effect of land use at the local level on bikesharing demand. At the regional level, results suggest that the overall walkability and job accessibility via bikesharing networks are significant factors influencing bikesharing activities and demand. Models developed in this study could be applied to other communities that are seeking to improve and/or expand their bikesharing systems, as well as cities planning to launch new bikesharing programs.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANF20 Standing Committee on Bicycle Transportation.
• Authors:
  • Nasri, Arefeh
  • Younes, Hannah
  • Zhang, Lei
• 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: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 7p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accessibility; Bicycle travel; Bicycles; Built environment; Demand; Jobs; Land use; Urban areas; Vehicle sharing; Walkability
• Geographic Terms: United States
• Subject Areas: Operations and Traffic Management; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01657038
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-04606
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Jan 23 2018 9:29AM