Public Bikesharing in North America: Early Operator Understanding and Emerging Trends

Susan PhD Shaheen, Adam Cohen and Elliot PhD Martin

Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings from Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley

Abstract: Public bikesharing—the shared use of a bicycle fleet by the public—is an innovative mobility strategy that has recently emerged in major North American cities. Bikesharing systems typically position bicycles throughout an urban environment, among a network of docking stations, for immediate access. Approximately five years ago, information technology (or IT)-based bikesharing services began to emerge in North America. Between 2007 and March 2013, 28 IT-based programs have been deployed–24 are operational, two are temporarily suspended, and two are now defunct in the United States (U.S.) and Canada. Bikesharing growth potential in North America is examined on the basis of a survey of all 15 IT-based public bikesharing systems operating in the U.S. and all four programs deployed in Canada, as of January 2012. These programs accounted for 172,070 users and 5,238 bicycles and 44,352 users and 6,235 bicycles in the U.S. and Canada, respectively, in January 2012. This paper reviews early operator understanding of North American public bikesharing and discusses emerging trends for prospective program start-ups.Public bikesharing—the shared use of a bicycle fleet by the public—is an innovative mobility strategy that has recently emerged in major North American cities. Bikesharing systems typically position bicycles throughout an urban environment, among a network of docking stations, for immediate access. Approximately five years ago, information technology (or IT)-based bikesharing services began to emerge in North America. Between 2007 and March 2013, 28 IT-based programs have been deployed–24 are operational, two are temporarily suspended, and two are now defunct in the United States (U.S.) and Canada. Bikesharing growth potential in North America is examined on the basis of a survey of all 15 IT-based public bikesharing systems operating in the U.S. and all four programs deployed in Canada, as of January 2012. These programs accounted for 172,070 users and 5,238 bicycles and 44,352 users and 6,235 bicycles in the U.S. and Canada, respectively, in January 2012. This paper reviews early operator understanding of North American public bikesharing and discusses emerging trends for prospective program start-ups.

Keywords: Engineering; Public bikesharing; North America; public transit; information technology; user survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-03-01
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (39)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/1x26m6z7.pdf;origin=repeccitec (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt1x26m6z7

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings from Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Lisa Schiff ().