Should bike-sharing continue operating during the COVID-19 pandemic? Empirical findings from Nanjing, China

Abstract

Introduction Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has triggered a worldwide outbreak of pandemic, and transportation services have played a key role in coronavirus transmission. Although not crowded in a confined space like a bus or a metro car, bike-sharing users are exposed to the bike surface and take the transmission risk. During the COVID-19 pandemic, how to meet user demand and avoid virus spreading has become an important issue for bike-sharing. Methods Based on the trip data of bike-sharing in Nanjing, China, this study analyzes the travel demand and operation management before and after the pandemic outbreak from the perspectives of stations, users, and bikes. Semi-logarithmic difference-in-differences model, visualization methods, and statistic indexes are applied to explore the transportation service and risk prevention of bike-sharing during the pandemic. Results Pandemic control strategies sharply reduced user demand, and commuting trips decreased more significantly. Some stations around health and religious places become more important. Men and older adults may be more dependent on bike-sharing systems. The declined trips reduce user contacts and transmission risk. Central urban areas have more user close contacts and higher transmission risk than suburban areas. Besides, a new concept of user distancing is proposed to decrease transmission risk and the number of idle bikes. Conclusions This paper is the first research focusing on both user demand and transmission risk of bike-sharing during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study evaluates the mobility role of bike-sharing during the COVID-19 pandemic, and also provides insights into curbing the viral transmission within the city.

COVID-19′s Pandemic Effects on Bike Sharing Systems: A New Reality for Urban Mobility?

“…Similar results to our research were found and conclusions were extracted for the cities of New York [37,38], Budapest [39], Thessaloniki [40,41], Nanjing [42], and the region of Sicily in Italy [43], regarding the level of ridership before, during, and after the imposition of restricting measures concerning urban mobility and specifically the usage of bicycles, the rides' duration [44], the people's perception towards BS systems due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and to bicycles in general [45,46]. Furthermore, during the early stages of the pandemic, in some cases, bike sharing expanded their memberships or improved accessibility for specific working groups [47].…”

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“…Before COVID-19, there were some studies that aimed to capture the influences of epidemic events on traditional transport modes ( Cui et al, 2011 ; Zhang et al, 2011 ). As an alternative mode of transport with its advantage in social distancing, a shared bike serves as a lifeline to satisfy the daily mobility demand of people during the COVID-19 pandemic ( Shokouhyar et al, 2021 ; Hua et al, 2021 ). However, it's the first pandemic strike since the emergence of bike sharing systems.…”

Smart technologies for fighting against pandemics: Observations from China during COVID-19

“…It’s worth noting that technologies like Sharing Economy have more obvious contributions in this stage. The development and maturation of massive virtual mobile applications and sharing ideas such as shared travel and shared employment will reduce the impact of the pandemic lockdown through the expansion of flexible virtual spaces and the efficient reuse of physical spaces and resources (Hua et al, 2021).…”