Can Bikeshare Help Transit Ridership?

Bikeshare has become an affordable, convenient, and sustainable travel option. One of many benefits that bikeshare program claims is that it extends transit catchment area and provides first/last mile connection. To date, a few studies were performed to examine the relationship at a regional level. In this paper, the authors examined the bikeshare’s function as the first/last mile connection to the rail transit systems at a national scale which includes top 5 rail transit systems by ridership, namely New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and San Francisco. Correlation analysis between bikeshare ridership and rail transit ridership was conducted to explore the relationship. The study results show that the number of bikeshare trips has a strong correlation with the transit ridership for five metropolitan areas collectively as well as at each induvial city level except San Francisco. Only a small number of bikeshare stations within the quarter mile buffer of transit stations in San Francisco was suspected as the reason for not showing a strong correlation. The study indicates that bikeshare plays an important role as the first/last mile connection to rail transit system. The integration of bikeshare and rail transit is essential for the growth of both systems.