Multicity Investigation of the Effect of Holidays on Bikeshare System Ridership

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 that change typical bikeshare activity patterns. Existing literature shows mixed results relating to the ridership impacts of holidays: some research shows that these days may result in higher ridership, whereas 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 consisted of a multicity study of the effect of holidays on system-level ridership using a loglinear regression model with robust standard errors. The results showed 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 were developed and tested to examine the effects of holidays on bikeshare usage. A major finding from this study was that federal holidays negatively affected member ridership and positively affected nonmember ridership. It was also found that different federal holidays had dissimilar effects on total ridership. These findings could be useful for bikeshare agencies to plan, reposition fleet, and improve system operation.