Capital Bikeshare Trip History Data -- Results Roundup

[caywood]

Hey everyone and welcome to the forum,

In late 2011, Daniel Gohlke of CaBiTracker.com, Tom Fairchild of Arlington's Mobility Lab, and I got Capital Bikeshare to agree to release a data set containing anonymous trip history data (http://capitalbikeshare.com/trip_history_data). At the beginning of 2012, they released data covering 2010 and 2011, about 14 months of the system's history (it was launched on September 20, 2010). This made CaBi the second system to release trip history data, after London's TFL (http://www.tfl.gov.uk/businessandpartners/syndication/16493.aspx). (Boston has recently released (http://www.mbta.com/rider_tools/developers/default.asp?id=23648) two days of data).

People have been publishing their analysis of this data all over the web, and I wanted to bring together in a single place some of the analyses that have been done, and some data sources so you all can do more. I've tried to be comprehensive but have missed a few things -- go ahead and add them in comments!

Everyone is credited by name, if I could find it, or username if I couldn't.

-- Matt Caywood

Data



Original source data (CSV files): http://capitalbikeshare.com/trip_history_data
Google Fusion Tables: http://www.dylanbarlett.com/2012/01/capital-bikeshare-trip-history-data/ (Dylan Barlett)
CSV files (cleaned and merged data set): www.coreyholman.com/flat.csv with station ID data at www.coreyholman.com/stations.txt. Description of cleaning process is here: http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/13351/capital-bikeshare-data-already-yields-interesting-facts/#comment-127243 (Corey Holman)
SQL file:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1643312/bikeshare.sql. Description here: http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/13411/more-great-maps-and-graphs-emerge-from-cabi-data/#comment-127768 (JMC on Greater Greater Washington)



Analysis


Corey Holman on Greater Greater Washington was the first to dive into the data.



Downhill flow, last mile trips, and tourist usage are summarized here: http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/13351/capital-bikeshare-data-already-yields-interesting-facts/ (Corey)

Most common one-way (origin, destination) pairs: http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/13351/capital-bikeshare-data-already-yields-interesting-facts/#comment-127227 (Corey)

Ward-to-ward flow patterns here: http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/13351/capital-bikeshare-data-already-yields-interesting-facts/#comment-127248 (Corey)



Many others jumped in shortly after:



An incredibly cool visualization of route fluxes on a map using a trip planner, throwing in London and Boston:
http://oliverobrien.co.uk/2012/01/bike-share-route-fluxes/ (Oliver O'Brien)

The propensity of casual users to pay overage fees. http://bikesharestation.com/capital-bikeshare-data/ (Eric O.)

One bike's peregrinations in the city, for kicks: http://www.jdland.com/dc/index.cfm/3620/Bikeshare-Data-Goofing-Around-Mapping-Bike-W01000s-Trips/ (Jacqueline Dupree, JDLand)

Monthly usage: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/housingcomplex/2011/12/23/why-the-big-decline-in-bikeshare-ridership/ (Lydia DePillis)

Neat look at how sunrise & sunset hours affected ridership, with a partial look at weather patterns: http://goo.gl/pQQaU ("Bilsko" commenting on JDAntos)



Finally, Justin Antos (JDAntos) has done a lot of pro work, and has written an (ongoing) series of posts about his results.


Graphs showing seasonal and time usage patterns: https://jdantos.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/capital-bikeshare-data-part-1/ (Justin Antos)

Trip duration: https://jdantos.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/capital-bikeshare-data-part-2/ (Justin Antos)

Usage patterns for single bikes: https://jdantos.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/capital-bikeshare-data-part-3/ (Justin Antos)

Flows between geographic regions (not wards) with (origin, destination) data: https://jdantos.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/where-are-capital-bikeshare-riders-going/



Discussion threads of interest


http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/13327/capital-bikeshare-releases-anonymous-trip-data/

http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/13351/capital-bikeshare-data-already-yields-interesting-facts/

http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/13411/more-great-maps-and-graphs-emerge-from-cabi-data/

https://jdantos.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/capital-bikeshare-data-part-1/

[Justin Antos]

Hi all, I've put together a few more visualizations on this:
-The "balanced-ness" of the system - net trips sent/(received): here (http://jdantos.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/the-balanced-ness-capital-bikeshare-stations/)and here (http://jdantos.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/capital-bikeshare-data-part-6/)
-Some maps showing where the casual users are, length of trip, and "balanced-ness" by stations here (http://jdantos.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/capital-bikeshare-data-part-7-maps-edition/)

[Justin Antos]

Does anyone have change in elevation, and distance between stations?

[dgohlke]

Add this to the list: http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~rahul/CABI/

[caywood]

Justin, Corey's flat.csv file (linked above) has trip elevation changes and Euclidean distances.

[caywood]

I just received clarification from CaBi that rebalancing trips are excluded from the trip data.

Bikes are "ghosted" by the service techs' keys and are not recorded in the trip database.

[caywood]

I've posted the results of a trip data analysis showing how bicycling speed compares to other modes, based on a sample of station pairs at Greater Greater Washington (http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/14048/bicycling-is-the-fastest-way-to-travel-in-downtown-dc/).

[mvs202]

Here's my own visualization: Looking at CaBi Stats with a Bubble Map (http://www.mvjantzen.com/blog/?p=1508).

I went through 3 iterations while writing the code, so the data started making my head spin - holler if anything looks amiss.

[mvs202]

Here's another project from the cabi data: A Day in the Life of Capital Bikeshare (http://www.mvjantzen.com/blog/?p=1566). Please check to see if the data looks right... Does it make sense there are no CaBi trips on this November Sunday in the Rosslyn corridor? I'll make another movie for a weekday when the new quarter comes in. Also, does it sound right that so many people return their cabi bikes to the same station? 63% for casual riders, and 32% for registered???

[mvs202]

Got a couple of new CaBi movies... latest animated CaBi data from March 23, 2012: Animating a Busy Day for Capital Bikeshare (http://www.mvjantzen.com/blog/?p=1613)

[caywood]

Michael, great movies. It seems to me the CaBi developer / data hacker community has just about caught up with the Londoners, even though we've had a year less time to hack! Let that be a challenge to them :0

BTW what was the answer to your question above about bikes being returned to the same station...was it because you were looking at the wrong year as you mentioned on twitter?

[caywood]

New work on reverse rider rewards and trip elevation changes by Rob Pitingolo:

http://blog.robpitingolo.org/2012/06/rebalancing-capital-bikeshare-stations.html

http://blog.robpitingolo.org/2012/06/capital-bikeshares-elevation-challenge.html

[caywood]

Using a trip planner from OpenPlans, James Wong has some new results about the trip durations where users will choose bikeshare vs. transit ( http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/15168/when-is-bikeshare-faster-than-transit/).

[caywood]

Eric Budd created some nice graphs of Q1 2012 hourly usage (http://ericmbudd.wordpress.com/2012/07/26/bike-sharing-usage-patterns-in-washington-dcs-capital-bikeshare/) by members vs. casual users.

[mvs202]

The London Barclays Cycle Hire has a sample file with 25 trips. To get access to their bikesharing system you have to submit an application, including things like expected audience, and the IP addresses of where you'll be using it!

No luck with Paris, Montreal, or Denver. Boston has a single set available, which I used to make a little visualizer tool with: Bikeshare Stats on a Map (http://www.mvjantzen.com/blog/?p=2776)

Anyone know of other cities where the bikeshare trip history data is easily available?

[pindari1978]

You should come to London and take a look. Many people use bikes to get to work or school, in fact it's getting more popular all the time. Bicycle usage has doubled over the past 5 years and about half a million bike journeys are now made each day in the city.

In addition London has the popular "Barclays cycle hire" scheme where you can rent bikes from stands in the street. These are commonly known as "Boris Bikes" after the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.

A lot of people do worry about the danger of cycling in London traffic. But in my opinion and experience, it's OK if you cycle sensibly and avoid the busiest junctions (intersections). And of course you should always use lights after dark. Free cycle route maps are available from TfL (Transport for London) which show you all the numbered cycle routes in London, which usually avoid the busiest streets.