Evaluating the effects of bike share systems on destination accessibility using complete travel chains

Abstract

Accessibility to employment, healthcare, and grocery stores remains uneven across U.S. cities. Docked bike share systems have the potential to improve first- and last-mile connectivity to destinations. However, existing accessibility assessments often employ simplified or single-mode representations of travel, either omitting portions of the travel chain or treating walking, cycling, and transit as independent systems. This study develops a census block level multimodal accessibility framework that integrates walk, docked bike share, and public transit into a unified origin–destination travel time matrix. Using network-based shortest travel times and cumulative opportunity measures, we evaluate changes in potential accessibility to jobs, supermarkets, and hospitals across three scenarios: 1) past (pre-bike share), 2) current bike share deployment, and 3) future (planned expansion). Population- and equity-weighted accessibility indicators are used to assess and compare heterogeneous impacts across areas where the general population and disadvantaged groups tend to reside. The framework is applied to the POGOH bike share system in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Results indicate substantial gains in potential accessibility following bike share deployment, with the largest percent improvements shown in the current scenario. Across both current and future scenarios, the cumulative number of reachable jobs shows the largest increase, followed by supermarkets and hospitals. While increases in equity-weighted accessibility are estimated to be larger under current POGOH deployment, increases in population-weighted accessibility are estimated to be higher under the future expansion. This may reflect a potential shift from equity-focused deployment to a focus on enhancing potential accessibility for areas where the general population tends to reside.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Journal of Transport Geography, 2026 · DOI ↗