Evolvement patterns of usage in a medium-sized bike-sharing system during the COVID-19 pandemic

Yue Qin; Hassan A Karimi

doi:10.1016/j.scs.2023.104669

Evolvement patterns of usage in a medium-sized bike-sharing system during the COVID-19 pandemic

Sustain Cities Soc. 2023 Sep:96:104669. doi: 10.1016/j.scs.2023.104669. Epub 2023 May 24.

Authors

Yue Qin¹, Hassan A Karimi¹

Affiliation

¹ Geoinformatics Laboratory, School of Computing and Information, University of Pittsburgh, 135 North Bellefield Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA.

Abstract

The global outbreak of COVID-19 has fundamentally reshaped human mobility. Compared to other modes of transportation, how spatiotemporal patterns of urban bike-sharing have evolved since the outbreak is yet to be fully understood, especially for bike-sharing systems operating on a smaller scale. Taking Pittsburgh as a case study, we examined the changes in spatiotemporal dynamics of shared bike usage from 2019 to 2021. By distinguishing between weekday and weekend usage, we found different temporal patterns between trip volume and duration, and distinct spatial patterns of within- and between-region rides with respect to naturally separated regions. Overall, the results illustrate the resilience and the vital role of bike-sharing during the pandemic, consistent with previous observations on bike-sharing systems of a larger scale. Our study contributes to a comprehensive understanding of bike-sharing that calls for more research on smaller-scale systems under disruptive events such as the pandemic, which can greatly inform decision-makers from smaller sized cities and enable future studies to compare across different urban regions or modes of transportation.

Keywords: Bike sharing; COVID-19; Spatiotemporal pattern; Urban mobility.