Assessing changes in job accessibility and commuting time under bike-sharing scenarios

Abstract

Bike-sharing improves individual mobility, considerably reshaping the landscape of job accessibility and commuting time. Existing empirical studies in urban transportation involving commuting usually collect survey data at the aggregate level. A comprehensive understanding of the influence of bike-sharing on commuting and job accessibility at the city level is still missing in developing countries. Using mobile phone data in Beijing, this study addresses these questions with a commuting mode model and cumulative accessibility model. The results indicate that bike-sharing could lead to a decrease in commuting time and an increase in job accessibility. The availability of bike-sharing services has a positive relationship with its effectiveness. Meanwhile, bike-sharing significantly reduces the horizontal and vertical inequality in commuting time and job accessibility at both the individual and spatial levels. These findings provide insights into the popularity of bike-sharing in China, shed light on the equity influence of bike-sharing, and provide a quantitative measurement of the benefit of bike-sharing.