Exploring the Impact of Dockless Bikeshare on Docked Bikeshare—A Case Study in London

As a green and sustainable travel mode, the bikeshare plays an important role in solving the “last-mile” problem. The new dockless bikeshare system (DBS) is widely favored by travelers, and the traditional docked bikeshare system (BS) is affected to a certain extent, but the specific circumstances of this impact are not yet known. To fill the knowledge gap, the objective of this study is to measure the impacts of DBS on London cycle hire, which is a type of BS. In this study, the travel data of 707 docking stations in two periods, i.e., March 2018 and March 2017, are included. A spatial-temporal analysis is first conducted to investigate the mobility pattern changes. A complex network analysis is then developed to explore the impact of DBS on network connectivity. The results suggest a significant decrease of 64% in the average trip amounts, with both origins and destinations in the affected area, and the trips with short and medium duration and short and medium distances are mainly replaced by DBS. DBS also has a considerable impact on the structure and properties of the mobility network. The connectivity and interaction strength between stations decrease after DBS appears. We also concluded that the observed changes are heterogeneously distributed in space, especially on weekends. The applied spatial-temporal analysis and complex network analysis provide a better understanding of the relationships between DBS and BS.