Bike-Sharing Station Usage and the Surrounding Built Environments in Major Texas Cities

Average daily bike-share system activity by station in Austin, Texas. Source: Austin B-cycle data from December 2013 to July 2017.

High-comfort bikeway (left) and sidewalk (right) kernel density in Austin

Abstract

This study explores how various built environments impact bike-share usage in emerging dock-based systems across three Texas cities. Previous research lacks clarity on whether factors that drive high bicycle usage in large cities also apply to smaller, developing bike-share markets in less densely populated American cities. In Austin and Houston, proximity to high-comfort bicycle facilities shows a positive correlation with bike-share usage. However, all three cities exhibit minimal relationships between bike-share usage and other established drivers of urban bicycling activity. This could be attributed to these systems being designed primarily for leisure and recreational trips.

Team

Louis G. Alcorn and Junfeng Jiao

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by the Cooperative Mobility for Competing Megaregions (CM2) grant from U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). In addition, the authors would like to thank Mr. Jianwei Chen for his Python-scripting support.

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