Analysis of spatiotemporal mobility of shared‐bike usage during COVID‐19 pandemic in Beijing

Abstract

The entire world is experiencing a crisis in public health and the economy owing to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic. Understanding human mobility during the pandemic helps to formulate interventional strategies and resilient measures. The widely used bike‐sharing system (BSS) could illustrate the activities of urban dwellers over time and space in big cities; however, it is rarely reported in epidemiological research. In this article, we analyze the BSS data to examine the human mobility of shared‐bike users, detecting the key time nodes of different pandemic stages and demonstrating the evolution of human mobility owing to the onset of the COVID‐19 threat and administrative restrictions. We assessed the net impact of the pandemic using the results of co‐location analysis between shared‐bike usage and points of interest. Our results demonstrate that the pandemic has reduced overall bike usage by 64.8%; however, a subsequent average increase (15.9%) in shared‐bike usage has been observed, suggesting partial recovery of productive and residential activities, although far from normal times. These findings could be a reference for epidemiological research, and thereby aid policymaking in the context of the current COVID‐19 outbreak and other epidemic events at the city scale.

Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the profile and preferences of urban mobility in Brazil: Challenges and opportunities

“…While studies on commuting during the pandemic suggest that people feel safer traveling by car, active mobility were also a viable alternative to meet the need for short-distance trips in urban areas ( Ruiz-Padillo et al, 2022 , Thombre and Agarwal, 2021 ). With mitigation of the pandemic, increases in active mobility were observed in some cities, as in the case of Beijing, where there was an average increase of 15.9 % in the use of shared bicycles, suggesting a recovery trend in sustainable mobility after the resumption of activities ( Chai et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Although the entire world has undergone the consequences of the pandemic, the impacts depend on the different COVID-19 preventive measures adopted by responsible authorities, and, in particular, developing countries have experienced an increase in inequalities and fragility of social systems ( Balbontin et al, 2021 , Vallejo-Borba et al, 2022 ). Mobility restrictions in the urban environment mainly affected the use of public transport, but many countries also identified a positive opportunity for active mobility ( Beck and Hensher, 2020 , Teixeira and Lopes, 2020 , Chai et al, 2021 ). In contrast, in the Global South, especially in Latin America, the measures taken and the behavioral changes have increased the preference for private vehicles and made travel and accessibility difficult for low-income and periphery families ( Arellana et al, 2020 , Guzman et al, 2021 , Vallejo-Borba et al, 2022 ).…”

“…This measure contributed to reducing the volume of passengers on the subways. In contrast, in Beijing (China), the pandemic reduced overall bicycle use by 64.8 % ( Chai et al, 2021 ).…”

The strengths and weaknesses of bike sharing as an alternative mode during disruptive public health crisis: A qualitative analysis on the users’ motivations during COVID-19

“…For example, New York City's BSS is responsible for around 10% of the city's cycling trips, even though the system is still mostly confined to the city core ( Department of Transportation NYC, 2018 ). Bike sharing has also been associated with reversing the decline of cycling usage in China ( Mobike, 2017 ) with, for instance, Beijing's dockless BSS accounting for over 1.5 million trips per day and having more than 11 million users (which corresponds to half the city's population) ( Chai et al, 2021 ).…”

Revealing the spatiotemporal characteristics of the general public's panic levels during the pandemic crisis in China

“…Nonetheless, most of them focus on epidemiology and crisis management. Only a few studies have investigated the spatiotemporal dynamics of human mobility or crisis information spread quantitatively at local scales during the COVID‐19 pandemic (Chai et al, 2021).…”