Modeling demand of bike share system using built environment attributes in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract

Increasing the share of trips done by bike has become an objective of cities worldwide. At the individual level, biking is associated with better physical and mental health. At the city level, biking contributes to alleviate traffic congestion, reduce commuting times and improve air quality. This research is an initial attempt to measure the relationship between demand of Buenos Aires' bikeshare system and sociodemographic, built environment and transportation attributes using a linear regression model. Departure and arrival counts are used as dependent variables and are aggregated by station over the period of one year. In addition, catchment areas of different sizes were constructed around bike share stations to estimate the relationships between bike-sharing demand and availability of these attributes around stations. Results suggest a positive relationship between population, buses, availability of bike lanes within the buffers, universities and station capacity. This client-based project seeks to shed light on the subject of bike sharing as a mode of transportation in the context of a Latin American country.