Economic Impact & Operational Efficiency for Bikeshare Systems
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Economic Impact & Operational Efficiency for Bikeshare Systems Local, Domestic & International Lessons This report was completed by the following graduate-level students of the Urban & Regional Planning Program at Virginia Tech, Alexandria, VA Campus: Ryan Anderson, Eric Childs, Yasmine Doumi, Justin Godard, Chris Marshall, Ashley Matthews, Katie McConnell, John Stowe, Nathan Wallingford and Eric Weisz With support and direction from: Ralph Buehler, PhD – Associate Professor in Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech Andrea Hamre – PhD candidate in Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech This research was approved by the Virginia Tech Institutional Review Board (FWA00000572, expires April 25, 2018) under IRB numbers 13-965, 13-909, and 13-872. Acknowledgements We would like to acknowledge the City of Alexandria Department of Transportation and Environmental Services, Bike Arlington, and the Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center for providing us with a charge for this study. We would like to thank Eric Gilliland, Director of Capital Bikeshare, for speaking with us about Capital Bikeshare’s resources and operations. We would like to thank all of our survey participants including Capital Bikeshare users, local business owners and employees, and the following bikeshare systems and staff members: Barclays Cycle Hire - Eleanor Stanhope, Transport for London Bicielx - Fernando Verdú, Responsable Área Movilidad Urbana Bicing - Customer Service Bike Chattanooga - Philip Pugliese, Coordinator, Transit Center Study Capital Bikeshare - Eric Gilliland, Director CoGo - CoGo Team BD Rent GmbH - Joerg Hoffman Decobike - Decobike Team Divvy - Elliot Greenberger, Deputy General Manager EnCicla - EnCicla B-Cycle Team Ft. Worth B-Cycle - Fort Worth B-Cycle Team Hubway - Emily Stapleton, General Manager Madison B-Cycle - Madison B-Cycle Team MVGmeinRad - Jörg Madwig Nice Ride - Mitch Vars, IT Director San Antonio B-Cycle - San Antonio B-Cycle Team ii TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 2 Economics Impact Report ...................................................................................................... 2 Economic Impacts of Bikesharing and Bicycling. ................................................................... 3 Literature Review ........................................................................................................................ 4 Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 7 CaBi Station Selection ............................................................................................................. 7 User Intercept Survey ............................................................................................................ 10 Business Perceptions Survey ................................................................................................. 11 Findings ..................................................................................................................................... 11 User Intercept Survey ............................................................................................................ 11 Business Perceptions Survey ................................................................................................. 21 Conclusion and Recommendations ........................................................................................... 25 3 Bikesharing Systems Survey ................................................................................................ 28 Purpose .................................................................................................................................. 29 Survey: Analysis of International Bikeshare Systems .............................................................. 30 Methodology .......................................................................................................................... 31 Bikeshare Demand and Capacity .............................................................................................. 37 Causes of the Balancing Problem.............................................................................................. 41 Operational Resources for Rebalancing .................................................................................... 44 Findings ..................................................................................................................................... 52 Promising rebalancing strategies ............................................................................................... 53 4 Analysis of Unbalanced Stations in Washington, DC ....................................................... 54 Analysis of Capital Bikeshare’s Imbalance .............................................................................. 55 Trip history data .................................................................................................................... 55 iii Station outage data ................................................................................................................ 56 Analysis .................................................................................................................................. 57 Regression Analysis: What Influences Imbalance? .................................................................. 62 Geography and Land Use Data ............................................................................................. 63 Regression Results ................................................................................................................. 66 Morning and Afternoon Rush ................................................................................................ 67 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................... 68 Satellite Stations: A Possible Solution ...................................................................................... 69 Data & Methodology ............................................................................................................. 70 Analysis .................................................................................................................................. 73 Satellite Station Conclusions ................................................................................................. 78 Capital Bikeshare Analysis Conclusions................................................................................... 79 5 Appendices ............................................................................................................................. 82 Appendix A. CaBi User Intercept Survey ................................................................................. 82 Appendix B. Business Perception Survey ................................................................................. 89 Appendix C. Key Variables. ..................................................................................................... 94 Induced Trips ......................................................................................................................... 94 Spend Money .......................................................................................................................... 97 Spend Amount ...................................................................................................................... 100 Appendix D. Bikesharing Systems Survey ............................................................................. 101 Bikeshare System Questionnaire ......................................................................................... 106 Appendix E. Works Cited ....................................................................................................... 111 iv 1 INTRODUCTION This report presents findings and recommendations regarding two bikesharing-related issues: potential economic impacts and the balancing problem. We conducted an intercept survey of bikesharing users and walk-up surveys of businesses to determine the extent and nature of bikeshare’s economic impact in five Washington, DC neighborhoods. To study the balancing issue, we surveyed bikesharing systems about their problems with and strategies for re-balancing and then analyzed a data sample from the Washington, DC system, Capital Bikeshare (“CaBi”). By “the balancing problem” we mean instances in which bikes in a bikesharing system are unevenly distributed such that stations are completely full or empty. We provide recommendations based on our findings that may help CaBi and other bikesharing systems become more impactful and efficient. 1 2 ECONOMIC IMPACT REPORT Background on Bikesharing and Capital Bikeshare Bikesharing has evolved in recent decades and gained widespread adoption in Europe as well as North America and Asia. Earlier generations of bikesharing ranged from free, unlocked bicycles distributed throughout a city (e.g. Amsterdam) to formal stations with sturdy bicycles specially designed for utilitarian use. In today’s third generation of bikesharing, paying members can check-out a bicycle from a station and return the bicycle to any station in the system (DeMaio, 2009; Shaheen, Guman, & Zhang, 2010). Riders pay a variety of member and usage fees depending on the type of membership