Analysis of Spatial and Temporal Characteristics of Citizens’ Mobility Based on E-Bike GPS Trajectory Data in Tengzhou City, China

Abstract

Environmentally friendly shared transit systems have become ubiquitous at present. As a result, analyzing the ranges and tracts of human activities and gatherings based on bike share data is scientifically useful. This paper investigates the spatial and temporal travel characteristics of citizens based on real-time-extracted electric bikes (e-bikes) Global Positioning System (GPS) data from May to July in 2018 in the central area of Tengzhou City, Shandong Province, China. The research is conducive for the exploration of citizens’ changes in mobility behaviors, for the analysis of relationships between mobility changes and environmental or other possible factors, and for advancing policy proposals. The main conclusions of the study are as follows. First, in general, citizens’ travelling is featured by rides that are less than 10 min, shorter than 5 km, and with a speed between 5 km/h and 20 km/h. Second, in terms of temporal characteristics, monthly e-bike usage and citizens’ mobility are positively correlated with temperature in May and negatively correlated with temperature in July; an overall negative correlation is also manifested between the e-bike usage (mobility) and air quality index; daily usage reaches a trough on Tuesday and a peak on Friday, indicating the extent of mobility on respective days; e-bike usage and human outdoor behaviors are significantly lowered in rainy weather than in sunny weather; hourly rides reach a peak at 18:00 (more human activities) and a trough at 2:00 (less activities), and average hourly riding speed maximizes at 5:00 and minimizes around 8:00 and 17:00. Third, for spatial characteristics, destinations (D points) during morning rush hour and regions where e-bikes are densely employed are concentrated mainly in mid-north and middle parts of the central area (major human gatherings), and the rides have a diffusing pattern; e-bike origin–destination (O–D) trajectories radiate mostly towards the mid-north and the east during evening rush hour. In addition, 9.4% of the total trips to work areas during morning rush hour represent spillover commuting, indicating that separations between jobs and residential are not severe in the central area of Tengzhou City and commuting is relatively convenient.