Below are the key insights extracted about bike share stations that were identified as top-performers using the metrics listed in the Exploratory Data Analysis section earlier. These attributes are contrasted against stations that were not identified to be top performers.

👁️‍🗨️ Notation

<aside> 💡 The two types of stations discussed earlier during EDA are considered separately here. They are top-performing stations and all other stations. Attributes were extracted separately for each type of station.

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Abundance in Downtown Toronto

The initial footprint of the network was focused in neighborhoods located in Downtown Toronto in order to target working professionals and the city’s financial district when the bike sharing service was launched. While the network has expanded into neighborhoods away from the city’s downtown core, nearly 80% of the 100 top-performing stations are still found in Downtown Toronto’s neighborhoods.

✏️ Recommendation

<aside> 💡 This suggests bike share stations within the city’s downtown area should be one of the areas prioritized for maximizing exposure to the target audience (bike share users) while also minimizing costs when running the digital ad campaign.

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Prevalence Also Among Neighborhoods Close to Downtown

In order to capture the majority of the remaining 20% of top-performing stations, neighborhoods that are immediately adjacent to the downtown core (to the east and west) and all other neighborhoods can be considered. In the above chart the adjacent eastern neighborhoods are colored in dark red and the adjacent western neighborhoods are colored in dark green. All other stations including those in adjacent northern neighborhoods are shown in light grey.

From the top chart it is clear that upon moving away from Downtown Toronto, those neighborhoods located immediately to its west have the next-largest fraction (approximately 15%) of top performing stations. These two areas capture a combined 95% of the top performing stations across the network. There are no top-performing bike share stations located north of Downtown Toronto.

✏️ Recommendation

<aside> 💡 The digital ad campaign footprint should capture top-performing stations located in neighborhoods within Downtown Toronto and immediately to its west.

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Physical Configuration

1. A small fraction of stations (less than 5%) currently supports e-bikes (shown in light green bars). This is true for both types of stations. One of the goals of the four-year expansion plan is to add more electric bikes to the network. So, while the fraction of stations with this configuration is expected to grow in the immediate future it is currently the smallest of the three high-level station configurations.
2. Kiosk-less (light grey bars) and regular (dark green bars) stations make up the majority of the footprint of stations across the network. Kiosk-less stations don’t provide a guided experience to walk a user through the bike check-out process, so the bike must be checked out directly from one of the bike docks at the station. Also, on-demand rides cannot be purchased at the station unless a kiosk is present. Approximately 15% of both types of stations have this configuration.
3. Both top-performing and all other stations predominantly use the regular station configuration where a bike check-in and check-out kiosk is available to support users starting or ending their trip. This was the initial configuration used when the service was launched and the majority of stations (more than 80%) still use this setup. Top performing stations have a small preference for this guided user experience over other stations.

✏️ Recommendation