Impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on user behaviors and environmental benefits of bike sharing: A big-data analysis

Wen-Long Shang; Jinyu Chen; Huibo Bi; Yi Sui; Yanyan Chen; Haitao Yu

doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.116429

Impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on user behaviors and environmental benefits of bike sharing: A big-data analysis

Appl Energy. 2021 Mar 1:285:116429. doi: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.116429. Epub 2021 Jan 17.

Authors

Wen-Long Shang¹, Jinyu Chen², Huibo Bi¹, Yi Sui³, Yanyan Chen¹, Haitao Yu⁴

Affiliations

¹ Beijing Key Laboratory of Traffic Engineering, College of Metropolitan Transportation, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China.
² Centre for Spatial Information Science, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa-shi, Chiba 277-8568, Japan.
³ College of Computer Science and Technology, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China.
⁴ Beijing Transportation Information Centre, and Beijing Key Laboratory for Comprehensive Traffic Operation Monitoring and Service, Beijing 100161, China.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic spreads rapidly around the world, and has given rise to huge impacts on all aspects of human society. This study utilizes big data techniques to analyze the impacts of COVID-19 on the user behaviors and environmental benefits of bike sharing. In this study, a novel method is proposed to calculate the trip distances and trajectories via a python package OSMnx so as to accurately estimate the environmental benefits of bike sharing. In addition, we employ the topological indices arising from complex network theory to quantitatively analyze the transformation of user behavior pattern of bike sharing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results show that this pandemic has impacted the user behaviors and environmental benefits of bike sharing in Beijing significantly. During the pandemic, the estimated reductions of energy consumption and emissions on 6^th Feb decreased to approximately 1 in 17 of those on a normal day, and the environmental benefits at most recovered to 70% of those in normal days. The impacts of COVID-19 on the environmental benefits in different districts are different. Furthermore, the decline of average strength and strength distribution obeying exponential distribution but with different slope rates suggests that people are less likely to take bike sharing to the places where were popular before. The pandemic has also increased the average trip time of bike sharing. Our research may facilitate the understanding of the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on our society and environment, and also provide clues to adapt to this unprecedented pandemic so as to respond to similar events in the future.

Keywords: Big-data; Bike sharing; COVID-19; Environmental benefits; User behaviors.