Citation

Jiao J, Lee HK, Choi SJ. Cities 2022; 130: e103849.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.cities.2022.103849

PMID

35991508

PMCID

PMC9376118

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing restrictions have had a significant impact on urban mobility. As micro mobility offers less contact with other people, docked or dockless e-scooters and bike-sharing have emerged as alternative urban mobility solutions. However, little empirical research has been conducted to investigate how COVID-19 might affect micro mobility usage, especially in a major Asian city. This research aims to study how COVID-19 and other related factors have affected bike-sharing ridership in Seoul, South Korea. Using detailed urban telecommunication data, this study explored the spatial-temporal patterns of a docked bike-sharing system in Seoul. Stepwise negative binomial panel regressions were conducted to find out how COVID-19 and various built environments might affect bike-sharing ridership in the city. Our results showed that open space areas and green infrastructure had statistically significant positive impacts on bike-sharing usage. Compared to registered population factors, real-time telecommunication floating population had a significant positive relationship with both bike trip count and trip duration. The model showed that telecommunication floating population has a significant positive impact on bike-sharing trip counts and trip duration. These findings could offer useful guidelines for emerging shared mobility planning during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Language: en

Keywords

COVID-19; Bike-sharing; Micro mobility; Spatial-temporal analysis; Telecommunication floating population; Urban environment