Measuring immediate impacts of a new mass transit system on an existing bike-share system in China

Abstract Mass transit systems as metros thrive nowadays in China – the largest bike-share market all over the world. Hence, it is meaningful to study how a new metro system impact on an existing bike-share system (BS) and understand how they interact to ensure they inter-enhance rather than inter-replace each other. By using trip-pattern and land use to create control and treatment groups based on trip data from Suzhou Public Bicycle System (SPBS), a ‘‘before-and-after’’ study is initiated to measure changes of an existing BS during a period when a new metro system (Here, Metro line 4: M4) opened. Normalized bike flow data (NF) is introduced to cluster and indicate trip-pattern in this study. The result indicates that most SPBS ridership and users within the metro’s catchment (the treatment group) have largely increased since the introduction of the M4, while non-commuting cycling increased more than commuting cycling. The exception happens in metros’ hub, where SPBS ridership slightly decreased after M4. As for SPBS trip-pattern, before M4 was introduced, trip-pattern in CBD areas in Gusu District is found to be partially imbalanced (high returning in the morning and high renting in the evening), while balanced pattern (similar returning and renting in morning and evening) is more often seen in other areas. After M4 was introduced, a general trip-pattern change from the balanced to the imbalanced is observed regardless of land use, except for educational land use existing in Wuzhong District. This further indicates that after new metros was introduced, SPBS tends to serve “first-mile” interchange (origins to metros) rather than “last-mile” interchange (metros to destinations) in the morning and vice versa in the evening regardless of land use type. This unique pattern could lead to different policy and management in enhancing interchanging service between BS and mass transit.