[en] Bicycle sharing systems (BSS) have increased in number rapidly since 2007. The potential benefits of BSSs, sustainability, health and equity, have encouraged their adoption through support and promotion by mayors in Europe and North America (NA) alike. In Europe BSSs are more often financed and operated by advertising companies than in NA where municipalities, non-profits and sub-contracted companies more often manage the systems. In both cases the municipal governments generally desire their BSSs to be successful and, with few exceptions, state them as being so. New BSS technological improvements to an old concept have dramatically simplified use and enforcement of bicycle return resulting in the widespread adoption of the first new form of public transportation in over a century. Unfortunately little time has been spent evaluating the effectiveness of differently distributed and managed BSSs risking that a poorly deployed BSS 'failure' alienate the concept within a municipality.
Comparing BSS systems quantitatively is difficult due to the limited data made available. The metrics of success presented by municipalities are often too general or incomparable to others making relative evaluations of BSSs success difficult. This paper presents methodology allowing the estimation of the number of daily trips, the most significant measure of BSS usage, based on changes to the number of bicycles available at a station. By processing large amounts of data we open past trip data estimates and provide a simple methodology enabling public evaluation of future BSSs’ performances.
Disciplines :
Human geography & demography
Author, co-author :
Medard de Chardon, Cyrille ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education (FLSHASE) > Identités, Politiques, Sociétés, Espaces (IPSE)
Language :
English
Title :
Opening bicycle sharing system trip counts using station level data