Effects of Free-Floating Shared Bicycles on Urban Public Transportation

Abstract

As a product of the development of the Internet and the sharing economy, shared bicycles are beneficial in solving the last mile problem of public transportation for urban residents and expanding the service area of urban public transportation to a certain extent. This paper analyses the spatial-temporal characteristics of shared bicycles in the city of Beijing by using kernel density estimation and statistical analysis methods. The maximum coverage location problem model is used to quantify the effects of shared bicycles on the subway and bus urban public transportation systems. The analysis results are of great importance to identify the effects of shared bicycle usage on an urban bus public transportation system from the view of space-time. The results show that (1) shared bicycles are largely located within 1.5 km from the subway station and 500 m from the bus stations; (2) the number of the shared bicycle usage changes along with the distance from the subway and bus stations; (3) subway and bus stations are divided into six types based on the sink-source characteristics of shared bicycles; (4) the service areas of subway and bus stations are expanded by approximately 2.34 and 1.33 times, respectively, after the implementation of shared bicycles.

Keywords

• shared bicycles
• sink-source characteristics
• urban public transportation
• kernel density estimation
• maximum coverage location problem