Effect of shared micromobility on public transit ridership in metro and medium-sized urban areas in the United States: complementary or substitutionary?

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2026

Subject Area

place - north america, place - urban, mode - bike, mode - other, mode - bus, mode - rail, planning - integration, ridership - behaviour, ridership - modelling

Keywords

Shared micromobility, public transit, ridership, difference in differences (DID), U.S. metros

Abstract

Bike and scooter shares are popular in many U.S. cities and are expected to supplement the local public transportation system by offering first- and last-mile connections, which can ultimately increase public transit ridership. However, no consensus has been reached on its relationship. Hence, we adopt a difference-in-differences (DID) approach to quantify changes in transit ridership per capita in the U.S. urbanized areas between 2014 and 2019 because of the adoption of shared micromobility. Our preferred models suggest that the overall public transit ridership significantly decreased during the study period. Furthermore, in addition to the potential effect of ride-hailing services, scooter share has a substitution effect on public transit ridership. Bike share also exhibits a negative, but statistically insignificant, effect on public transit ridership. Thus, it is critical to integrate shared micromobility into existing public transit systems to make transportation modes in the entire system complement each other, not compete against.

Rights

Permission to publish the abstract has been given by Taylor&Francis, copyright remains with them.

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