Investigating Complementary and Competitive Relationships between Bikeshare Service and Public Transit: A Spatial-Temporal Framework

Public transit offers many socioeconomic and environmental benefits but often suffers from the first/last-mile problem. The emergence of bike-sharing systems promises to provide first/last-mile access to transit stops/stations and increase the use of transit. However, it is simply unknown whether bikeshare can help transit, or whether it may instead compete with transit by offering people another travel mode to avoid the waiting time entirely. Recent studies have examined the spatial relationship between bikeshare and transit but have ignored important temporal aspects such as the timing of planned trips and transit schedules. This paper develops a framework with procedures and methods for investigating the potential competitive and complementary relationships between bikeshare and transit systems from a spatial-temporal perspective. The paper applies this framework to the Nice Ride bikeshare service and Metro Transit in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, as a case study. The results suggest both complementary and competitive relationships that are not exclusive from each other. The general patterns vary across different regions in the study area and are affected by the underlying neighborhood characteristics. The results provide novel insights to the complex interactions between bikeshare and transit systems and can support operation and planning practices.