This study is a preliminary exploration of the demand for the Citi Bike docking stations bicycle-sharing services in New York City, NY. Using bike trip data for the month of November 2018, this analysis illustrates the spatial concentrations of Subscriber demand and Customer demand.
Subscribers include monthly or annual subscribers of the Citi Bike services. Subscribers purchase a monthly pass which allows them to take an unlimited number of trips (45-min max each trip). Customers either purchase a One-day pass or Three-day pass, which allows them to take an unlimited number of trips (30-min max each trip) as long as the pass is valid, or purchase a single trip.
Key findings:
- Trip demand varies in different neighborhoods of Manhattan. Overall, stations in Midtown and Downtown are the busiest. The stations in Lower Manhattan are less busy, and stations in Uptown are the least busy. The 20 most population stations (3% of all stations) represent 11% of all trip starts in the month of November 2018.
- Approximately 93% of all trips were made by subscribers, most of whom are commuters. Only 7% of all trips were made by customers, most of whom are likely visitors.
- The busiest subscriber trip starting stations are mainly concentrated in the employment centers in Midtown and Downtown. In contrast, the majority of the busiest customer trip starting stations are located near tourist destinations such as Central Park and Lower Manhattan waterfront.
- Trip demand varies with the type of day: stations mainly serving subscribers are busier on non-holiday weekdays than on holidays and weekend; stations that attract customers are busier on holidays and weekend.
- Subscriber trips tend to be shorter and less varied across stations: the average subscriber trip duration at different stations concentrate in the 5 – 20 minutes range; the average customer trips duration at different stations ranges from less than 10 minutes to over 40 minutes.
For details and dynamic charts, please see: https://github.com/yuqimit/citi_bike_2019
Yuqi Wang 