Study: Bikeshare Boosts Riding in Philadelphia

New research from Drexel University suggests that Philadelphia’s Indego bikeshare system has increased physical activity in residents, reports Marcus Biddle for WHYY. “The school’s Urban Health Collaborative collected data from 1,031 newly enrolled bikeshare members, and found that overtime, individuals were cycling at an average of 20 minutes per day.”

The study also looked at equity among bikeshare users, said Amy Auchincloss, associate professor at Drexel’s Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. “Close to 25% of participants in her study were Black and Latino with a median age of 30-years old, and an average income of $35,000 per year,” Biddle writes.

Auchincloss says the long-term future of biking in the city depends on the availability of safe bike infrastructure, which Auchincloss says “is not consistently conducive to biking.” Without more investment in connectivity and safety, riders could be discouraged from continuing to use the system. “Some folks are making the plunge and getting on bikes, but many of them are dropping out and are not using bikes at the level that we would hope at a sustained level.”