Affiliation:
1. Departamento de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
2. Escuela de Negocios, Universidad de Las Américas, UDLA, Quito 170124, Ecuador
Abstract
During recent years, bike sharing systems (BSS) have been adopted in many large cities around the world. Thanks to their environmental and health benefits, BSS’ popularity as a green transportation mode is exponentially increasing and many small cities are also adopting them. However, few of these small cities have the resources to manage and analyze the massive amount of data produced by these systems in order to optimize them and promote their use among citizens. This manuscript analyzes BiciLog (Logroño, Spain) data and studies customers’ usage patterns, disaggregated by gender and age. The t-test is the inferential statistic test employed to compare the equality of the means among different groups. Results show differences in how women and men are using the BiciLog system. Women use the system less but ride for longer than men. There are also differences between age groups. Most of the users are between 20 and 29 years old. However, customers between 60 and 69 years old are also extensively using BSS. In fact, they not only make more trips but also their rides are around three times longer than customers in other age groups. These results can be used by BiciLog operators to create and evaluate campaigns to motivate BSS use among target groups and improve the system based on customers’ preferences. The main limitation of this investigation is the lack of data available to calculate additional information such as the real distance covered by customers when riding, or their preferred routes. For future research, a longer data period can be considered to compare usage patterns across different years. Additionally, customer surveys can help us to understand their motivations to use the system and corroborate the results found in this study.
Funder
Universidad de las Américas
Subject
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law,Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment,Geography, Planning and Development,Building and Construction
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