Middle States Annual American Geographer Conference
2014
Citi Bike is the largest bike share system in the United States, outperforming other programs such as Boston’s Hubway and Washington’s Capital bike share programs. To fully explore the value of this transportation method and to develop better operational practices, we argue that a full understanding of the seasonality pattern of use and other patterns of variation is necessary. In our preliminary analysis, it is clear that bike share users vary considerably and there is not just one type of rider. In particular, the program is spatially arranged in only certain parts of New York City, and in fact only two of the five boroughs have access to bike share. Because of this arrangement of stations, the users of bike share are interesting to study from a transportation perspective. Their patterns of use may be affected by the arrangement of the programs bike docks, weather events and holidays. This study will focus on exploring the various differences between the seasonality patterns of male and female riders. Large scale data (over 7 million trip records) will be analyzed using advanced statistical techniques (from SAS software) and then mapped using Geographic Information Systems. The authors look to uncover and document the fundamental differences in bike share use between male and female riders. A more profound understanding of user behavior has the potential to improve systems operations and also help plan for future system expansion.