Boosting the eco-friendly sharing economy: the effect of gasoline prices on bikeshare ridership in three U.S. metropolises

Transportation has become the largest CO 2 emitter in the United States in recent years with low gasoline prices standing out from many contributors. As demand side changes are called for reducing car use, the fast-growing sharing economy shows great potential to shift travel demand away from single-occupancy vehicles. Although previous inter-disciplinary research on shared mobility has explored its multitudes of benefits, it is yet to be investigated how the uptake of this eco-friendly sharing scheme is affected by gasoline prices. In this study, we examine the impact of gasoline prices on the use of bikeshare programs in three U.S. metropolises: New York City, Boston, and Chicago. Using bikeshare trip data, we estimate the impact of citywide gasoline prices on both bikeshare trip duration and trip frequency in a generalized linear regression setting. The results suggest that gasoline prices significantly affect bikeshare trip frequency and duration, with a noticeable surge in short trips. Doubling gasoline prices could help save an average of 1933 gallons of gasoline per day in the three cities, approximately 0.04% of the U.S. daily per capita gasoline consumption. Our findings indicate that fuel pricing could be an effective policy tool to support technology driven eco-friendly sharing mobility and boost sustainable transportation.