The difference between customers and subscribers in Boston tourists using shared bicycles under COVID-19: Trip frequency and its determinants

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the frequency of tourists using shared bicycles to a certain extent. This paper uses the cycling data of Boston, USA from June 2020 to December 2020, taking users in areas without bicycle sites as tourists. Using customers and subscribers among tourists to share bicycle trip data on a daily basis, taking into account the weather, the built environment of bicycle sites, and the number of COVID-19 cases per week, a negative binomial regression model is used to explore these factors during the epidemic. The relationship between regional customers and subscribers using shared bicycle trips and influencing factors. The results show that, first of all, during the pandemic, there is a double-peak tide phenomenon in the usage of shared bicycles by subscribers among tourists, and customers use more in the evening peak. Secondly, the population density and employment density around bicycle sites have a significant positive impact on the shared bicycle use of customers and subscribers. For every 1% increase in the population, subscriber usage increases by 4.55%, and every 1 % increase in employment Density, customer usage increased by 4.22 %. In addition, the number of bus stations and subway stations has a restraining effect on the use of shared bicycles. Finally, the number of epidemics will increase the usage of customers and subscribers to a certain extent, with subscribers increasing by 0.25% and customer usage increasing by 2.92 %. The research results can timely analyze the usage of bicycles shared by different users among tourists during the pandemic, and can help transportation agencies adjust services in different regions to better control the spread of the virus.