Abstract
Technology-enhanced bikeshare features a dockless system with GPS-tracked electric bikes and a mobile app. As an additional transportation mode, it offers users greater accessibility and more flexibility compared to traditional bikeshare. This paper examines the causal impact of a tech-enhanced bikeshare program on public transit ridership, using evidence from a mid-sized metropolitan area in the Midwest of the United States. We use a difference-in-differences identification, exploring the exogenous hourly variation in precipitation and the fact that bicycle usage is limited when precipitation occurs. We find that the initial pedal bicycle fleet with a dockless system increased bus ridership by 1% and the subsequent upgrades to electric bikes further increased bus ridership by an additional 1.1%. The increased bus ridership occurred where and when the travel demand arose, providing suggestive evidence of bikeshare trips solving the first-/last-mile problem. The increased bus ridership occurred mostly in block groups with a lower median household income, a younger population, lower vehicle ownership rate, and lower homeownership rate.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 63-78 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice |
Volume | 155 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 2022 |
Keywords
- Bikeshare
- Difference-in-differences
- First mile/last mile
- Public transit
- Technological innovation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Civil and Structural Engineering
- Transportation
- Management Science and Operations Research