Riding to Wall Street : Determinants of Commute Time Using Citibike

Commuting to work by shared bicycle is an increasingly popular transportation option. We examine the trip data from Citibike, the shared bicycle program of New York City, restricting analysis to morning rides into the Wall Street area, a destination for which workers are likely to be sensitive to their arrival time. Among the frequent commute origins, commuting later in the morning lengthens the time on the road, while demographic variables such as gender, age and subscription also significantly predict commute time. Congestion appears to increase for bicycle commuters directly before financial markets open. Weather related factors have a small impact on biking commute time compared to other factors. When considering the model specifications as potential user models of commute time, the bicycle commuters outperformed the models for shorter commutes and for commutes occurring later in the morning, which is consistent with the ability and incentive to increase efforts to reduce their riding time under these conditions