Connecting the Last Mile: The Impact of Dockless Bike-sharing on Public Transportation

In this study, we examine the impact of a new mobile-based, dockless bike-sharing service on public transportation usage. This new bike-sharing model removes the constraint of having fixed stations and gives users full flexibility on where to pick up and return bikes. This innovative feature of dockless bike sharing potentially disrupts the current norms of how people commute. The dockless shared bikes offer easy connections between destinations and public transportation stations. They can potentially promote public transportation, by improving its flexibility and outreach. To examine this impact, we collaborate with one of the largest dockless bike-sharing companies in China and collect unique daily-station-level panel data of shared-bike rides and subway traffic. Our findings indicate that a 1% increase in shared-bike rides leads to an increase of 0.35% in subway traffic. Further analyses show that this positive effect is stronger when people need to travel a longer distance to reach subway stations. These results suggest one potential underlying mechanism for the positive relationship we observe, that is, dockless shared bikes alleviate the “last-mile problem” for public transportation, making it a more appealing mode of transportation, compared with alternatives. Overall, we find that dockless shared bikes, in contrast to ridesharing or traditional bike sharing, act as a complement, rather than a substitute, for public transportation. Dockless shared bikes present a greener way of commuting, with significant environmental and societal impacts.