Summary

Jana Hirsch, PhD, MES, assistant research professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Drexel Urban Health Collaborative, is the Principal Investigator of the project, "Freedom from the Station: Spatial Equity in Access to Dockless Bike Share." This examination looks at equity in new models of bikeshare.

Partners

Better Bike Share Partnership, a collaboration funded by The JPB Foundation to build equitable and replicable bike share systems.

News Items

• Who is using free-floating bikeshare and what are the barriers to access?
• Dockless bike share systems may improve access to disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Infographic

• Freedom from the station: spatial equity in access to dockless bike share (PDF)

Research

• Free-floating bike share systems may improve access to disadvantaged neighborhoods (PDF)
• Who is using free-floating bike share and what are the barriers to access? (PDF)
• Residents in Seattle, WA report differential use of free-floating bikeshare by age, gender, race, and location
• Freedom from the station: spatial equity in access to dockless bikeshare

Research Methods

The research team at Drexel University is examining the spatial equity in dockless bike share – the equitable distribution of bike share bikes across the geographical boundaries of Seattle, WA – and the role that redistribution plays in equity.

Working with the City of Seattle, the University of Washington/Washington State Transportation Center, and dockless bike share operators, researchers both measure equity in spatial access and seek to translate Seattle’s experience into recommendations for equitable approaches for dockless bike share systems in other cities.

Acknowledgements

Research Team

• Jana Hirsch, Drexel University
• Stephen Mooney, University of Washington
• Maura Adams, Drexel University
• Joshua Stratton-Rayner, Drexel University

Collaborators

• Meghan Winters, Simon Fraser University
• Kate Hosford, Simon Fraser University
• John Stehlin, University of Manchester

Partners

• Seattle Department of Transportation
• Better Bike Share Partnership
• Washington State Transportation Center

Funding Acknowledgements

This project was funded by a research grant through the Better Bike Share Partnership and PeopleForBikes. SJM was funded in part by the National Library of Medicine (Grant 1K99LM012868). MW is supported by a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar Award (#16502).

The Urban Health Collaborative and Dornsife School of Public Health supported this research through their investment in urban health research at Drexel University. The authors thank Maura Adams for her assistance gathering data and literature for this paper. The authors also acknowledge Joel Miller (Seattle Department of Transportation) and Alon Bassok (Washington State Transportation Center) for their expertise with the Seattle bikeshare pilot.