Bikeshare systems have come a long way since they were first introduced in the Netherlands in the 1960s. They are popular in cities around the world, but how do bike systems affect existing public transportation?

The researchers study the impact of bikeshare bikes in U of I’s hometown, the midsize metropolitan area of Champaign-Urbana in Central Illinois. The town houses 500 VeoRide bikeshare bikes on campus and in the wider communities, 400 of which are electric. All are dockless, meaning they can be picked up and parked anywhere.

Since VeoRide launched in 2018, Champaign-Urbana has seen an increase in bikeshare riding, while bus ridership in the United States has declined since 2014.

«On one hand, bikeshare has the potential to compete with other transit types due to the convenience and speed (especially electric bikes). On the other hand, bikes might complement bus transit by replacing just a segment of the trip,» says Yilan Xu, associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics (ACE) at U of I, and co-author on the paper.

Dockless systems especially can help solve the age-old problem of the first and last mile of a trip, allowing users to ride directly to the bus stop or their final destination, Xu notes.

In order to determine how bikeshare interacts with the bus system, Xu and Rebecca Martin, who was a graduate student in ACE when the research was conducted, measured the number of boarding passengers at bus stops in each hour between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. during the fall season.

Story Source: Materials provided by University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.