Research Studies Examine Bike Share Access and Helmet Use in Seattle

Two new studies of dock-less bike share usage in Seattle show infrequent helmet use and limited geographic disparity in service distribution. A team of University of Washington researchers found that only 20 percent of bike share riders wore helmets, compared with 91 percent of cyclists riding their own bikes. Another research team examining equity issues found that although all neighborhoods had some access to bikes, there was greater availability of bikes in affluent areas.

The research utilizes data that was made publicly available through the UW’s Transportation Data Collaborative (TDC), which is co-led by Bill Howe, Director of Urbanalytics, Jan Whittington of the Department of Urban Design and Planning, and Mark Hallenbeck of the Washington State Transportation Center. The TDC is a protected and linked data repository of sensitive information from public and private transportation providers, including bike share companies, designed to promote research while protecting privacy.

The first paper, “Free-Floating Bikeshare and Helmet Use in Seattle, WA”, was published in the Journal of Community Health in December 2018. The authors were Stephen J. Mooney, Bella Lee and Allyson W. O’Connor. Researchers gathered data by counting cyclists at four locations: the Fremont bridge, the Burke-Gilman Trail, Broadway Bike Lane, and NW 58th Street at 22nd Avenue NW. In addition to counting low usage of helmets among bike share riders, the researchers also observed fewer cyclists with helmets on their own bikes in areas with heavy bike share usage.

The second paper, “Freedom from the station: Spatial equity in access to dockless bike share”, was published in the Journal of Transport Geography in January 2019, with the same lead author, Stephen J. Mooney. Urbanalytics Director Bill Howe was a co-author with Kate Hosford of Simon Frasier University and the University of British Columbia, An Yan and Alon Bassok of UW, Meghan Winters of Simon Frasier University, and Jana A. Hirsch of Drexel University.

The research examined equitable access for geographic areas and socio-demographic groups across the city of Seattle based on data collected by bike share operators and the U.S. Census. Results showed that neighborhoods where residents had higher rates of college education and higher incomes and had somewhat greater access to bike shares.

The research papers were recently chronicled in a UW News article.