Bicycle Sharing and Transit: Does Capital Bikeshare Affect Metrorail Ridership in Washington, D.C.? By

Bicycle sharing programs have emerged as a global trend as an affordable, convenient, and sustainable travel option with various benefits. One of the benefits of such programs is touted to be their positive impacts on transit ridership by extending transit catchment area and providing much needed last-mile connection. Thus, locating bicycle sharing programs in transit station areas is believed to benefit both. However, the question of how and to what extent bicycle sharing programs affect transit ridership remains to be answered despite the attempts of few empirical and quantitative studies. From the microeconomic perspective, bicycle sharing can be a substitute, complement or both to transit use. In this paper, we examine impacts of bicycle share program on rail transit ridership using Washington, D.C. as a case study. Specifically, we explore the Capital Bikeshare program’s impact on Metrorail’s ridership. Two sets of analysis are conducted (1) an Origin-Destination analysis is conducted to map quarterly Capital Bikeshare trips, (2) a regression analysis. The first analysis showed that Metrorail stations have been important origin/destination of Capital Bikeshare trips. Six out of seven bikeshare stations with more than 500 trips are close to Metrorail stations. The result of regression analysis show Capital Bikeshare ridership in Metrorail transit catchment area is associated with higher transit ridership. Results suggest that 10 percent increase of CaBi ridership will lead to 2.8 percent increase in Metrorail ridership. Based on the results, potential policy implications and recommendations are discussed.