Insights about temporal trends in the following metrics for bike share ridership are discussed here

  1. monthly ridership
  2. hourly ridership
  3. ridership by day of the week

Due to seasonality in bike share ridership, all metrics are calculated separately for weekdays and weekends.

📅 Monthly Ridership

Average monthly ridership on weekdays is shown below

07_monthly_weekday_ridership.png

Average monthly ridership on weekends is shown below

08_monthly_weekend_ridership.png

  1. Peak monthly ridership occurs during the warmest months of the year (six months from May to October each year), for both types of users and at both type of stations. This is the peak bike share season for North American bike share systems.
  2. During the late summer and early fall of 2021, bike share ridership was starting its seasonal downturn. A corporate membership bike share plan was introduced in late September in response to changing ridership patterns and Casual ridership immediately increased in September and October of 2021. By comparison, Annual ridership continued its seasonal downturn. This was observed on both weekdays (top chart) and weekends (bottom chart) and at both types of stations.
  3. At both types of stations, average monthly Casual ridership also showed year-over-year growth during the first full prime bike share season (2022) following the introduction of the corporate plan in September of 2021. This also continued during the fall months of 2022. By comparison, Annual 2022 monthly ridership is nearly unchanged when compared to 2021. This was the first time that Annual Casual ridership consistently outperformed Annual ridership on weekdays between April and December at both types of stations.
  4. Considering only weekdays in all the ridership data since 2018, peak Annual monthly ridership is relatively unchanged across the top-performing stations but is trending down across all other stations.

Observed Patterns

Unsurprisingly, monthly ridership peaks in the middle of the year (July) when temperatures are at their highest, for both types of users and stations.

📈 Trend Changes

Casual monthly ridership has out-performed Annual monthly ridership since April of 2022 on both weekdays and weekends at across both type of stations. This is evidence of increased ridership by Casual members across the Bike Share Toronto network.

✏️ Recommendation

<aside> 💡 The campaign execution window should prioritize the months between May and October (inclusive) of 2023 in order to maximize awareness of the program since this is prime bike share season.

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