(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-09-11)
Borsch, Adam
In 2017, JUMP Bicycle Company introduced dockless electric bicycles in several cities in the United States. Two of these cities were Austin, TX, and Atlanta, GA, both of which already had bikeshare companies operating with traditional non-electric bicycle fleets. This makeup of two unique sources of data for non-electric and electric bikeshare in these two cities presents a unique opportunity to study the difference between trips made on a pedal-assist bicycle and a standard bicycle that are a part of an urban bikeshare network. To conduct this work, the researchers collected three months of data in each of the cities and analyzed the data by comparing trip counts, mapping the origins and destinations and the routes of the trips, and finally analyzing the distance and other characteristics of the trips. The results of the study found an increase in the number of bikeshare trips taken in both cities, however, many of these new electric bicycle trips come at the expense of existing bikeshare trips. The geographic area covered by the trips increase greatly when electric bicycles trips are compared to regular bike trips in both cities, however, the average trip lengths stayed constant. Results suggest the introduction of electric bikeshares is a promising prospect to increase mobility and will need to be incorporated into transportation plans for cities moving forward.