Graduation Year

2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.S.C.E.

Degree Name

MS in Civil Engineering (M.S.C.E.)

Degree Granting Department

Engineering

Major Professor

Robert L. Bertini, Ph.D.

Co-Major Professor

Michael Maness, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Fred Mannering, Ph.D.

Keywords

Calendar Days, Casual, Micromobility, Special Events, Subscriber

Abstract

Bikeshare provides important first-mile last-mile, commuting, circulation, and sightseeing options in many cities. Bikeshare can also be healthy and convenient for users. Throughout the year, holidays occur which change typical bikeshare activity patterns. Existing literature shows mixed results relating to the ridership impacts of holidays, as some research shows that these days may result in higher ridership, while others show no effect. Because of variations in system locations and modeling methods, it is difficult to determine the reasons for these mixed results. To control for these aspects, this project consists of a multi-city study of the effect of holidays on system-level ridership using a log-linear regression model with robust standard errors. The results show the impacts of holidays on bikeshare system ridership for different user types among systems in the Washington D.C., Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis metro areas. Several hypotheses are built and tested for examining the expected effects of holidays on bikeshare usage. A major finding from this study is that federal holidays negatively affect bikeshare system subscribing member ridership and positively affect non-member ridership. It was also found that different federal holidays have dissimilar effects on total ridership. For special events it was found that event operation characteristics impact special event bikeshare ridership. Park-based events had more positive effects on ridership than street-based events, multi-day events generally showed increases in ridership compared to single day events, and national events contributed to the highest bikeshare ridership. These findings could be useful for states, counties, cities, parks, recreation facilities and bikeshare agencies to plan, reposition fleets, and improve system operation. Lastly, these findings could be useful to urban planners and civic leaders in the consideration of road closures and other traffic changes to ensure pedestrian safety on these special days.

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