Equitable Bike Share Across Cities

By Malcom Glenn, Head of Global Policy, Accessibility and Underserved Communities, and Amy Smith, Policy Research Data Scientist

When JUMP joined the Uber team last year, part of the reason we were so excited was that we believed that dockless e-bikes could improve equitable access to low-cost transportation throughout cities, particularly parts of cities that were traditionally poorly-served by existing transportation options.

Improving equitable access means making our bikes and scooters more available to more people, and we recognize that includes breaking down several obstacles to transportation equity, including (but not limited to) geographic, financial, and physical barriers.

Cities today are making strides to correct the inequities of the past, but the fact remains that there are far too many places where people struggle to find transportation. These transportation deserts are largely the result of two factors, the first of which is demand-driven planning, where services were historically planned to meet the needs of population-dense neighborhoods. And second, of course, is the history of segregation and the resulting intersection of race and socioeconomic status, all of which have resulted in neighborhoods with more money and political influence generally having more transportation options and better service.

E-bikes can broaden the number and different types of people who use bikes as a mode of transportation because the motorized assistance allows riders to go farther with less effort. In addition to covering more ground, dockless bike share means more flexible service areas and less cost in terms of infrastructure and sidewalk space than docked systems.

Filling in Transportation Gaps with Dockless Bike Share

We were excited at the prospect of our dockless service areas improving equitable outcomes, and the early data in two cities bears that out. Specifically, we looked in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco at the geographic coverage of JUMP usage and where it’s filling in gaps as an alternative to a private car.

As the maps above show, transportation alternatives in Washington, D.C. are not equally distributed throughout the city. Among the many practical implications of this is a need for a personal car, or — in the many cases when a person doesn’t have access to a car, can’t afford a car, or isn’t physically able to drive — an inability to travel at all.

We’re intentional in designing our service areas as more expansive than docked systems, with a particular eye towards traditionally underserved areas. Thus far, it seems to be making a difference: our dockless e-bikes are beginning to fill in the gaps by providing broader geographic access to transportation alternatives. In Washington, D.C., many of the areas with the lowest transit frequency and limited access to docked bike share are experiencing JUMP activity, as shown in the maps to the far right.¹ In fact, over a third of all JUMP rides begin or end in the areas that are lowest in terms of transit frequency.²

As seen in the maps below, even in cities like San Francisco — where we have a limited supply of JUMP bikes due to a cap on our permit — more than a third of JUMP trips are ending in parts of the city that have few public transportation and docked bike share options.

Continued Investment in Equitable Outcomes

These early results are promising, and we’re excited about what this could mean at scale, both within cities where we’re already operating and as JUMP comes to even more places. That said, we recognize that ensuring that communities have more equitable access to bike share requires thoughtful, deliberate efforts on the part of both operators and cities. The cities with whom we’re partnering have been working hard for almost a decade in some cases to address challenges and find new ways to improve outcomes. We’re committed to working with them to leverage dockless bike share to help provide mobility and connectivity across racial and socioeconomic boundaries.

This is just the beginning of a continued focus on equity, and we recognize it means more than just thinking about where you can travel. We’re also aiming to reduce financial and technological barriers by offering our Boost plan — which for a very low monthly rate of $5 gives eligible low-income riders 60 minutes of riding per day — and are continuing to develop smartphone-free and cash payment options. We’re also exploring how we can best create libraries of accessible bikes, while researching how we can eventually implement even more accessible point-to-point transportation solutions for people with disabilities in the long-term.

We know none of this can happen without engaging with folks in the community and gathering feedback, and we look forward to improving those ongoing efforts, as well as continuing to work with our city partners, researchers, and advocates to evaluate and evolve our work to better serve and reflect the residents in cities where we operate.

1. Yellow Census Block Groups represent areas with 3 or more rides per month on average, and where 1) transit frequency is at or below the 30th percentile for the city, 2) a docked bike share station is not located or observing at least 3 trips per month on average.
2. Lowest in this case refers to at or below the 30th percentile of transit frequency for the city, as measured by the EPA.