Citi Bike: Has Jersey City Jumped On Board?
Ridership usage, patterns, and the city’s most popular bike stations
When I first heard Citi Bike would be launching in Jersey City, I was ecstatic. I would spend many weekend mornings in the summer walking to Lincoln Park to take in the breeze and get those Fitbit steps in. I looked at Citi Bike as a return to my carefree childhood bike-riding days around the park PLUS a cardio workout. Win win! If I enjoyed it enough, I would try it out in NYC for my daily commute since JC membership allows station usage there too.
Citi Bike NYC launched on May 23, 2013 with 332 bike stations and 6,000 bikes. Citi Bike Jersey City opened 2+ years later on September 21, 2015 with 35 stations and 350 bikes. How has it fared? Were others excited like I was to join in and use it recreationally or for their daily commute? Who exactly was riding Citi Bike in Jersey City?
I focused my exploration on 2 overarching questions:
- What are the riding patterns of Citi Bike Jersey City users?
- What is the demographic makeup of Citi Bike Jersey City users?
Topline Usage
First, an all-in overview of Citi Bike JC usage.
Over 161K trips have been taken in 10 months (Figure A), averaging 520 trips per day. By comparison, NYC has had 10 million trips in 2015, roughly 27k per day.
Trips taken September 21, 2015 to July 26, 2016
How did ridership look per month?
Monthly breakdown (Figure B) shows usage picks up going into the warmer months of the year, May & June 2016. July data is incomplete but it’s on trend with June.
Ridership Patterns
We have an overview of ridership throughout Jersey City as a whole, but is ridership equal amongst all of Jersey City? Let’s first take a look at all the Citi Bike stations in Jersey City.
There are 47 total stations in Jersey City, as of July 2016. More stations (Astor Place, Communipaw & Berry Lane, Brunswick & 6th, etc.) have since been added.
This map below shows JC Citi Bike station usage, which includes all trips that START at a Citi Bike JC station. 9 out of the top 10 most active stations (by total number of rides starting at that station) are located in Downtown JC, with the one outlier Sip Avenue in Journal Square.
You’ll also notice usage expands outside of Jersey City, into Manhattan and even Brooklyn. This is a very small slice, only 84 out of 161k trips, but interesting nonetheless. 2 possible explanations: 1) Jersey City riders are taking the bikes onto the PATH train, or riding into NYC across bridges & tunnels or 2) Citi Bike employees are finding abandoned bikes and redocking them at NYC stations. I haven’t seen either happen with my own eyes, but I’m more inclined to believe #2
Are you surprised to see a majority of the most active stations are located Downtown? It’s possible Citi Bike may just attract a certain clientele. In fact, NJ.com cites 60% of Citi Bike’s users live in the 07302 zip code, comprising most of Downtown.
Trips taken September 21, 2015 to July 26, 2016
And if we look squarely at trips by neighborhood (Figure C), 70% originate at a station Downtown, with Journal Square in 2nd place but not even close at 16% of all trips.
What is it about Downtown that is attracting so much usage? Is it truly that appealing to the average Downtown resident? Or maybe it’s not about the rider, but more about the location of the station. Are these stations in a convenient spot, close to Jersey City businesses with plenty of foot traffic or to other public transportation hubs?
Trips taken September 21, 2015 to July 26, 2016
Let’s find out! Here’s a closer look at the most popular/active start stations (Figure D).
Of the top 10 stations, 5 (Grove St PATH, Exchange Place, Sip Ave, Newport PATH, Essex Light Rail) are very close to other forms of public transportation, PATH station or Light Rail. And of the top 10, Sip Avenue isn’t even located Downtown. The Sip Avenue station sits right outside the Journal Square transportation hub, where riders can take PATH trains into other areas of Jersey City, Hoboken, downtown/midtown Manhattan OR opt for buses traveling around Jersey City or to Hoboken, Bayonne, or Manhattan.
But proximity to transportation hubs isn’t an instant formula for success. The Garfield Ave, West Side and MLK Light Rail Citi Bike stations are all in the lower third of usage. However it is possible Downtown may be the magic neighborhood — 13 of the top 20 stations are Downtown. Note: Morris Canal, Jersey & 6th St, and Jersey & 3rd do have low usage but these stations were just added in July 2016 so you’re only seeing at most 3 weeks’ usage. Additionally, a few Downtown stations not listed here had no ridership whatsoever, but in a few months’ time we can see if adoption takes off.
Trips taken September 21, 2015 to July 26, 2016
Finally, let’s look at ridership through one more lens: most popular routes (Figure E).
By now we’re not surprised to learn 8 of the 10 most popular routes start or end Downtown. But take a look at #4, McGinley Square -> Sip Ave. McGinley Square didn’t even break our top 10 start stations, but as part of a rider’s regular route, it’s right up there. And because I’m a resident of Jersey City, I can take a guess why. The McGinley Square bike station sits right outside Hudson Catholic Regional High School and a fairly active bus stop. Students may leave class, hop on a Citi Bike to Sip Ave (right in Journal Square), and transfer to the PATH train or a bus only available at the JSQ station.
Did you notice the lower half of the most popular routes are just the reverse direction of the top half routes? I got such a kick out of this! This could be a sign that these riders are following a daily or at least regular pattern: jumping on a Citi Bike in the morning to head to work, docking it at the end station (near another transportation hub), and at the end of the day, if they choose to, taking the Citi Bike right back home. However, because the reverse trip numbers do not exactly mirror the counterpart, it’s possible they are finding an alternate way home. And of course it could be the other way around, the top 5 routes could actually start at the rider’s workplace. I’d need to segment the route data by time of day to find out. We’ll leave that analysis for another day.
In my next post, we’ll take a look at weekday vs. weekend usage, and the demographic makeup of Citi Bike Jersey City’s riders.
— —
Citi Bike Trip Information data from Jersey City Open Data portal here
Citi Bike station locations here
