Journal of Transport Geography 74 (2019) 299–312

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Journal of Transport Geography

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jtrangeo

Associations of built environments with spatiotemporal patterns of public T

bicycle use
Hung-Chi Liu, Jen-Jia Lin
⁎

Department of Geography, National Taiwan University, Taiwan

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: This study examines the association of built environment attributes with spatiotemporal patterns of public bi-
Built environment cycle use. The study observations are based on the rental records of YouBike, which is a public bicycle system
Public bicycle system (PBS) in Taipei Metropolitan Area, Taiwan, from July to December 2015. A hierarchical clustering method is
Spatiotemporal pattern applied to identify the spatiotemporal patterns of YouBike use, and multinomial logit regression is used to clarify
the associations. Empirical results indicate that the spatiotemporal patterns of PBS utilization differ in weekdays
and holidays and are associated with locations, land use and facilities in a city. The empirical evidence fills the
knowledge gap on the factors associated with the spatiotemporal patterns of PBS use and provides system op-
erators with a valuable basis for the integrated planning and management of PBSs and built environments.

1. Introduction
Sustainable and green transportation developments have been
widely explored because of their potential to limit air pollution and
energy consumption. Given such awareness, the public bicycle system
(PBS) has been considered as an alternative to and complementary
mode for traditional transportation systems. The advantages of PBSs in
terms of transportation and health include flexible mobility, promotion
of physical activity and support for multimodal transport connections
(Shaheen et al., 2010). According to the Bike-sharing blog (http://bike-
sharing.blogspot.tw/), 1525 PBS programs, including dock-based and
dockless systems, have operated approximately 18.9 million public bi-
cycles worldwide at the end of 2017.
To design and operate effective and sustainable PBSs, local admin-
istrators and system operators should possess comprehensive knowl-
edge of the spatiotemporal patterns of PBS use and the factors influ-
encing these patterns. For instance, with regard to dock-based systems,
if an area is expected to attract PBS use and cover large hinterland, then
a large rental station equipped with many docks and bicycles should be
considered in this area. Moreover, bicycle rebalancing operations
should be well planned in advance when rental peaks are obvious in an
area. Comprehensive information about the spatiotemporal attributes
of PBS use enhances the effectiveness of PBSs and prevents the re-
dundant allocation of resources.
However, existing knowledge on the spatiotemporal patterns of PBS
use is still insufficient because differences in patterns have yet to be
fully reported. Given that PBSs are public transportation modes that are
usually utilized in cities, built environment attributes appear to be
potentially correlated with PBS use. Previous studies confirmed that
built environments are associated with general bicycle (Cervero et al.,
2009; Winters et al., 2010; Zhao, 2014) and public bicycle use (Faghih-
Imani et al., 2014; Rixey, 2013). However, these studies have focused
on modal shares or amounts of bicycle use and disregarded their spa-
tiotemporal attributes. Numerous studies have investigated the spatio-
temporal patterns of PBS use (Borgnat et al., 2011; Vogel et al., 2014;
Zhou, 2015), but these studies have poorly clarified the reasons that
lead to different patterns.
To fill the knowledge gap in literature, we investigated the asso-
ciation of built environments with the spatiotemporal patterns of PBS
use. The rental records of YouBike, which is a PBS in Taipei
Metropolitan Area (TMA), between July and December 2015 were used
as the study sample. The spatiotemporal patterns of PBS use were
identified, and their correlations with built environments were clar-
ified. The empirical findings contributed evidence supporting the issue
and provided system operators with a valuable basis for the integrated
planning and management of PBSs and built environments.
2. Literature review
Previous studies on the spatiotemporal patterns of PBS use extended
our understanding of the characterisation of PBS use in terms of time
and space. However, they presented limited information on the causes

⁎
Corresponding author at: Department of Geography, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
E-mail address: jenjia@ntu.edu.tw (J.-J. Lin).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2018.12.010
Received 13 August 2018; Received in revised form 27 November 2018; Accepted 20 December 2018
Available online 26 December 2018
0966-6923/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
H.-C. Liu, J.-J. Lin
of variations in patterns. Existing empirical evidence on the correlation
between built environment and PBS use contributes to the knowledge
about rental frequency determinants rather than spatiotemporal attri-
butes. Hence, a knowledge gap exists in the exploration of the asso-
ciation of built environments with the spatiotemporal patterns of PBS
use.
Existing studies on PBS usage have mainly performed surveys in
Europe and North America. Their empirical findings represent the facts
in the surveyed regions and are inapplicable to other parts of the world
because local contexts, such as culture, land use and user behavior, vary
among regions. Local knowledge on travel behavior should be empiri-
cally gathered to develop bicycle-friendly built environments for a city.
2.1. Spatiotemporal patterns of PBS use
Travel behavior observations are no longer limited to the collection
of sample surveys via personal interviews or questionnaires because of
the evolution of information and communication technologies. These
observations are also available in operating records that reveal the
spatiotemporal attributes of travel behavior in intelligent transporta-
tion systems. A large number of studies have applied such data to in-
vestigate the spatiotemporal patterns of travel behavior. For example,
Schlich et al. (2004) identified the spatiotemporal structures of personal
leisure travels. Novák and Sýkora (2007) analyzed the spatiotemporal
patterns of the activities and levels of mobility of outskirt residents in
Prague. Delmelle and Delmelle (2012) investigated the spatial, tem-
poral and gender differences in transportation modal choice among
student commuters in a university environment. The spatiotemporal
patterns of PBS use have gradually been widely explored because of the
booming development of PBSs and the wireless communication tech-
nology applications of borrow–return operations. In general, studies on
the spatiotemporal patterns of PBS use can be classified into two ca-
tegories.
The first category aims to determine the temporal patterns of PBS
use and to develop models for predicting future use. For example,
Froehlich et al. (2009) used the preliminary data about available bi-
cycles at Bicing rental stations in Barcelona to develop four different
models for predicting the availability of bicycles at rental stations, and
the accuracies of their prediction results are higher than 80%.
Kaltenbrunner et al. (2010) analyzed the changes in available bicycles
in each Bicing station to identify the periodic patterns and then applied
these patterns to predict the number of available bicycles for each
station. Borgnat et al. (2011) examined the moving data of Velo'v
system in Lyon from spatial and temporal views to estimate the rental
frequencies and flows of each station and applied the nonstationarity
and cyclostationarity of each station to develop prediction models.
Zhao et al. (2015) explored the rental records of Nanjing PBS in China
and determined that males and females have different usage patterns in
different spatiotemporal situations compared with those studies on
Europe cities. They also mentioned that built environment factors can
be related to the spatiotemporal patterns of PBS use, but they did not
provide concrete evidence.
The second category focuses on clustering PBS use into different
usage patterns. Froehlich et al. (2009) applied a hierarchical clustering
method to identify the usage patterns of Bicing stations and argued that
clustering results may likely be influenced by station locations. For
instance, outgoing clusters are generally at the edge of a city, whereas
incoming clusters are typically situated near major roads or business
districts. Borgnat et al. (2011) used a modularity index to identify
clusters and found that more PBS movements occur within a cluster
than between clusters in Lyon. Come and Oukhellou (2014) applied
Poisson mixture models and an expectation–maximization algorithm to
classify Vélib’ stations in Paris into eight groups, and their results in-
dicated that clustering results are associated with social economic si-
tuations, such as population, job opportunity and shop densities.
O'Brien et al. (2014) surveyed 38 PBS schemes worldwide and
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identified different usage types related to commuters, leisure users and
tourists on the basis of the divergence of spatial characteristics and
usage flows of the investigated cities. Vogel et al. (2014) applied
principal component analysis and K-means method to classify Velo'v
uses into four different usage patterns and determined that high-fre-
quency users mostly live in places where transportation is convenient.
Zhou (2015) adopted community detection methods to categorise PBS
flows and suggested that PBS flows change with different peak hours.
For example, PBS rentals for travel into a city center are high in
morning peak hours, whereas rentals for travel out of the city center are
high in afternoon peak hours. Moreover, Zhou used a hierarchical
clustering method to classify PBS use into five clusters and confirmed
that different clusters are located in different land use areas.
2.2. Built environments and PBS
Numerous transportation studies have investigated the relationships
between built environments and travel behavior and concluded that
such relationships exist in their investigated cities (Cervero and
Kockelman, 1997; Ewing and Cervero, 2001; Handy et al., 2005). With
regard to bicycling research, empirical evidence also supports the ex-
istence of a correlation between built environment and general bicycle
use (Heinen et al., 2010; Moudon et al., 2005; Titze et al., 2008; Zhao,
2014).
With the rising popularity of PBSs worldwide, bicycling behavior is
bound to change. For example, travelers can use public bicycles, al-
though they do not have their own bicycles. Hence, numerous studies in
North America, West Europe and China have investigated the built
environment correlates of PBS use, and most of them involve aggregate
analyses with rental stations as observations. In the US, Daddio (2012)
and Rixey (2013) investigated Capital Bikeshare in Washington DC and
confirmed that bikeways, transit stations, retailers, universities and
parks are positively related to PBS use. Maurer (2011), Rixey (2013)
and Wang et al. (2015) surveyed Nice Ride in Minnesota and identified
that bike-share docks, proximity to parks and universities, density of
high-income jobs and retail density are related to the rentals of PBS
stations. Mattson and Godavarthy (2017) analyzed the data of Great
Rides Bike Share in North Dakota and found a positive relationship
between proximity to college campuses and PBS use. Faghih-Imani and
Eluru (2016b) examined CitiBike in New York City and indicated that
population density, job density and proximity to bicycle route, transit
stations, parks and restaurants are positively associated with PBS use. In
Canada, Faghih-Imani et al. (2014) and Faghih-Imani and Eluru
(2016a) investigated BIXI in Montreal and concluded that development
density and proximity to transit stations, restaurants, bicycle lanes,
minor roads, other PBS stations and central business districts are po-
sitively related to BIXI use, whereas proximity to major roads is nega-
tively related to BIXI use. El-Assi et al.'s (2017) evaluation on Bike
Share Toronto has concluded that population density, employment
density and proximity to transit stations, university campuses and bi-
cycle infrastructure are positively related to PBS use. In France, Tran
et al. (2015) investigated Velo'v in Lyon and determined that popula-
tion, employment, students, road networks, transit stations, cinemas
and restaurants are positively correlated with PBS use, whereas altitude
is negatively related to PBS use. In Spain, Faghih-Imani et al. (2017)
studied Bicing in Barcelona and Sevici in Seville and concluded that
population density and points of interests, including businesses, re-
creational facilities, transportation, restaurants and hotels are posi-
tively associated with PBS use, whereas elevation is negatively related
to PBS use. In China, Zhang et al.'s (2017) analysis of PBS rental records
in Zhongshan, Guangdong have found that PBS use is positively related
to population density, length of bicycle lanes, branch roads and diverse
land use types near rental stations and negatively related to distances to
city centers and number of nearby rental stations. Guo et al. (2017)
conducted a questionnaire survey in Ninbo, Zhejiang, as part of the only
disaggregate analysis by using individuals as observations and
H.-C. Liu, J.-J. Lin
confirmed that proximity to PBS stations is positively related to the
probability of PBS usage.
The aforementioned studies have identified multiple built environ-
ment attributes associated with PBS use frequency. However, Faghih-
Imani et al. (2014) suggested that the associations reveal temporal
variations in Montreal, Canada, and they found that the relationships of
some built environment attributes, such as restaurants, university and
job density, to PBS use in the morning are remarkably opposite to that
in the afternoon because of activity features of land uses. For example,
the arrival rates of public bikes in a job-dense area should be high in the
morning and low in the afternoon because commute trips to work
places are mostly implemented in the morning. In addition to temporal
variations, built environment attributes are associated with travel dis-
tances and correlated with spatial variations in PBS use. According to
the theoretical inference of Boarnet and Crane (2001), a benefit-max-
imization model shows that grid roadway networks, mixed land use and
land-use intensification are associated with short travel distances.
Clarifying the associations of built environments with spatiotemporal
patterns of PBS use benefits the efficient planning and operation of a
PBS scheme. For example, system operators should consider equipping
large-scale PBS stations and operating bike rebalancing mechanisms
during peak hours in a neighborhood whose built environments are
associated with high dock turnover rates, multiple usage peaks and long
rental distances. However, these associations have been disregarded in
previous research.
3. Methods
3.1. Data
This study uses the YouBike rental records as the study data.
YouBike is a PBS that has been operating in the TMA since August 2012.
The TMA includes Taipei, New Taipei, and Keelung Cities, and YouBike
provides its services in the two former cities with approximately 6.7
million residents within a land area of 2324 km2. YouBike has been a
remarkable transport mode for short distance and connecting travels of
transit systems in the metropolitan area. In December 2017 over 3.85
million rentals occurred, and over 400 rental stations and 12,000 public
bicycles were in service.
According to the municipal regulations of the cities under study,
only rental records from the last six months were available for research.
Hence, we used the complete rental records between July and
December 2015 except during the rainy days as the study data when the
research started in September 2016. Considering that several rental
stations launched their services between July and December 2015 and
were not ideal to be included in the study data, we used the rental
records of 355 rental stations that have been in service since July 1,
2015. Fig. 1 illustrates the geographical distribution of the target rental
stations in the TMA. Given the fact that the TMA is a basin in terms of
topography and developments are mostly located at the bottom, the
distribution of the rental stations is consistent with that of develop-
ments. A total of 14,695,640 rental records (8,798,684 records in Taipei
City and 5,896,956 in New Taipei City) are collected as the study data.
Each record contains the information of check-in time, check-in station,
check-out time and check-out station. The collected rental records were
originally prepared in .accdb file format for Microsoft Access and
transferred to .csv file format in this research in order to be reorganised
into rental station statistics by R programming language.
To use rental stations as observations, we aggregated the original
rental records into daily average statistics for each station and each
time interval. This study adopted 15 min as the time interval, with 96
time intervals occurring in a day. A longer time interval may lose
variability within each interval, while a shorter time interval may in-
troduce too many features that are not representative of temporal be-
havior clustering (Zhou, 2015). Previous studies adopted different time
intervals, including 5 min (Froehlich et al., 2009), 10 min
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(Kaltenbrunner et al., 2010), 1 h (Come and Oukhellou, 2014; Vogel
et al., 2014) and 2 h (Zhou, 2015), in response to their research pur-
poses and data context. The 15 min interval is suitable for this research
to reveal the temporal features of YouBike use because more than a half
(59.7%) of the collected rental records were with rental time of 15 min
or less. The daily average statistic indicates the sum of a statistic in all
observation dates divided by the number of observation dates. Built
environment attributes may have different associations with borrowing
and return behavior (Faghih-Imani et al., 2014). As such, the daily
average statistics are calculated on the basis of borrowing and return
records. Furthermore, holidays and rainy days may reveal different
attributes of PBS use (Rixey, 2013; Faghih-Imani et al., 2014). Hence,
this study excluded rainy days from the observation dates and calcu-
lated the daily average statistics by weekday and holiday. The holidays
studied in this research denote weekends and public holidays. From
July to December 2015, the observation dates covered 73 weekdays and
30 holidays for Taipei City and 74 weekdays and 29 holidays for New
Taipei City.
3.2. Spatiotemporal attributes
This study investigated two spatiotemporal attributes of PBS use at a
rental station. The first attribute is the temporal distribution of dock
turnover rates (DTRs). A DTR is defined as the daily average borrowing/
return count within a time interval per dock at a rental station. In
Fig. 2(a), the horizontal axis represents the 96 time intervals that begin
at 00:00–00:15 and end at 23:45–24:00. The vertical axis represents the
DTRs of the return counts on weekdays at a rental station. Morning,
noon and evening peaks are observed in terms of bicycle returns, and
the evening peak reveals the highest DTR of return on weekdays at this
station. To prevent the situations that all docks in a rental station are
fully parked and leaving no more docks for bike arrival and the rental
station has no more bike available for borrowing, the staff of the
YouBike operator conducts bike-rebalancing works at busy rental sta-
tions during peak hours. However, this overflow and under-supply si-
tuations occasionally happen at some stations. Consequently, DTRs
represent implemented demands rather than full demands of PBS use,
that is, the potential demands of PBS use that are not implemented
because of overflow and under-supply situations at rental stations are
not studied in this research.
The second attribute is the temporal distribution of origin–destina-
tion distances (ODDs). An ODD indicates the daily average origin-des-
tination (OD) distance of a rental (borrowing or return records) within a
time interval. The OD distance of a rental refers to the shortest travel
distance between a rental's borrowing station and return station.
Accordingly, the ODD represents a spatial extent of hinterland for a
rental station during a time interval. In Fig. 2(b), the horizontal axis
denotes 96 time intervals, and the vertical axis denotes the ODDs of
borrowing records on holidays at a rental station. This example reveals
that the ODDs of borrowing before 6:00 (the first 24 time intervals) at
this station are 2–2.5 km, and they decline to 1–1.5 km after 6:00. The
significantly long OD distances of PBS use at midnight or early morning
can be due to the insufficient public transport services during that time
in the TMA.
3.3. Identifying spatiotemporal patterns
This study applied the two attributes and conducted cluster analyses
to identify the spatiotemporal patterns of PBS use at the rental stations.
A total of 355 rental stations that have been operating since July 1,
2015, were used as observations in the cluster analyses. In the cluster
analyses, we grouped a set of observations in such a way that the ob-
servations in the same cluster were more similar to one another in terms
of spatiotemporal attributes than to those in other clusters. Relatively
dissimilar spatiotemporal patterns of PBS use were identified on the
basis of the clustering results.
H.-C. Liu, J.-J. Lin
Fig. 1. Study PBS rental stations in Taipei Metropolitan Area.
In the cluster analyses, each rental station was characterized by two
attributes (i.e., DTR and ODD), and each attribute was a temporal se-
quence that contained 96 time-series performances. We applied the
hierarchical clustering method on the basis of the review of clustering
methods applicable to time series analyses in the work of Liao (2005)
and the results of the PBS study of Froehlich et al. (2009). When op-
erating this method, the distance matrix among observations should be
determined first. This study applied the dynamic time warping (DTW)
method to measure the distances among the observations. DTW is one
of the algorithms used to measure the similarity between two temporal
sequences that may vary in speed. For instance, the similarities between
two rental stations performing similar DTR fluctuation patterns over
time can be detected using DTW even when their fluctuations occur in
shifted time intervals.
Apart from the distance matrix, the hierarchical clustering method
should also determine the distances among clusters. This study applied
popular methods used in the literature, including the single-linkage
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Journal of Transport Geography 74 (2019) 299–312
agglomerative algorithm, the complete-linkage agglomerative algo-
rithm, the average-linkage agglomerative algorithm and Ward's method
in the cluster analyses and consequently selected the results from
Ward's method to determine the distances among the clusters on the
basis of Silhouette coefficients. The details of the hierarchical clustering
method for time series data, DTW and Ward's method are found in
Liao's (2005) review. Fig. 3 illustrates a hierarchical clustering result as
an example. Based on the dendrogram, this study identified four clus-
ters (A, B, C and D) of rental stations for borrowing records on week-
days. The complete results and discussions of cluster analyses are pre-
sented in the next section.
3.4. Logit regressions
To clarify the association of built environment attributes with the
spatiotemporal patterns of PBS use, we applied the multinomial logit
(MNL) model to analyze the observations. The MNL method is
H.-C. Liu, J.-J. Lin Journal of Transport Geography 74 (2019) 299–312

1.4

1.2

count/dock
0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
me interval

(a) The temporal distribution of DTRs of return records on weekdays

3000

2500

2000
meter

1500

1000

500

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
me interval

(b) The temporal distribution of ODDs of borrowing records on holidays

Fig. 2. Spatiotemporal attributes of PBS uses at the rental station of Gongguan Metro Station Exit 2.

which the empirical associations of explanatory variables with the

Fig. 3. The dendrogram of hierarchical clustering results for borrowing records
on weekdays.
commonly applied to examine category-dependent variables, such as
the clustering results in this research. The maximum likelihood method
is commonly applied to estimate the utility functions of MNL models in
clusters are clarified. Details about the MNL model can be found in
textbooks related to discrete choice analysis (Ben-Akiva and Lerman,
1985; Washington et al., 2011).
The explanatory variables considered in the utility functions are
categorised into two groups, namely, built environments and control
variables, and their definitions are listed in Table 1. This study selected
these explanatory variables based on previous empirical findings de-
scribed in the Literature Review section. These variables were measured
within a rental station area. A rental station area refers to the area
within a 350 m buffer ring measured using the travel distance on a
practical road network and the center of a rental station. A distance of
350 m is the service distance of a rental station used in the Station
Setting Criteria of Taipei City. The built environment variables were
organized into six dimensions, namely, density, diversity, design, des-
tination accessibility and distance to transit (5D), as applied in the work
of Cervero et al. (2009), and the distribution of PBS rental stations.
All of the obtained variable data were for the base year of 2015.
Some of the newest databases and published documents did not match
the base year, so the period of 2011–2015 was used as the data years.
Variable data were collected from multiple sources. Data on population

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Table 1
Definitions of explanatory variables for the MNL models.
Variable Definition Unit

Built environments
Density
Population density Number of residents/area of land in an RSA1 People/m2
Employment density Number of employees/area of land in an RSA People/m2
Student density-E Number of elementary school and junior high school students/area of land in an RSA People/m2
Student density-H Number of senior high school, undergraduate, and graduate students/area of land in an RSA People/m2
Building density Area of floor space/area of land in an RSA m2/m2
Diversity
Land use mix Land use entropy2 in an RSA, –
s
i = 1 (Di) ln(Di ) s
entropy = , i = 1 Di = 1, where Di is the proportion of floor space i, i denotes the land use type, and s is the total
ln(s )
number of i
Commercial ratio Floor space area of commercial and business use/area of total floor space in an RSA %
JH balance Job-housing balance index3 in an RSA –
Design
Arterial length Length of arterials4/area of land in an RSA m/m2
Street length Length of streets5/area of land in an RSA m/m2
Road space Area of road space/area of land in an RSA m2/m2
Intersection Number of intersections/area of land in an RSA Intersection/m2
Bikeway Length of bikeways/area of land in an RSA m/m2
Greenness Area of parks, green fields, squares, and playgrounds/area of land in an RSA m2/m2
Tree Number of street trees/area of land in an RSA tree/m2
Lamp Number of street lamps/area of land in an RSA lamp/m2
Destination accessibility
Local center Shortest travel distance between a rental station and the nearest local commercial center m
Education facility Number of education facilities/area of land in an RSA facility/km2
Leisure facility Number of leisure facilities/area of land in an RSA facility/km2
Retailer Number of retailers/area of land in an RSA retailer/km2
Distance to transit
Metro distance Shortest travel distance between a PBS station and the nearest metro station m
Bus distance Shortest travel distance between a PBS station and the nearest bus stop m
Distribution of PBS
PBS station Number of PBS rental stations/area of land in an RSA station/m2
PBS dock Number of PBS docks/area of land in an RSA dock/m2

Control variables
Demography
Age 15–64 Population aged 15–64 years/total population in an RSA –
Gender ratio Male-to-female ratio in an RSA –
Higher education Population having college degree/total population in an RSA –
Income Average household income in an RSA TWD
Mobility
Car Number of cars/area of land in an RSA vehicle/m2
Scooter Number of scooters/area of land in an RSA vehicle/m2
Environment
Slop Maximum slops in a buffer %
Accident Number of traffic accidents/area of land in an RSA accident/m2

1
RSA denotes a PBS rental station area. RSA refers to the area within a 350 m buffer ring measured by the travel distance on a practical road network and the
center of a PBS rental station.
2
The land use entropy was developed by Cervero (1988) and has been popularly used as a land use mix measure in literature.
3
Job-housing balance index = ln ( )
J
H max
| ln ( )|
J
H
/ ln ()
J
H max
, where J is the number of employees, H is the number of households, and ln ( )
J
H max
denotes

the maximum ln ( )
J
H
value among all the RSA. The index was originally developed by Zhao (2014) and modified in Lin et al. (2018) to maintain a positive value
meaning to land-use diversity, such that the higher the index value, the higher the diversity degree.
4
Arterial refers to arterial or expressway.
5
Street refers to the collector or local street.

(number, age and gender), students, households, bikeways, street trees
and lamps, bus stops, local commercial centers, retailers, education,
entertainment facilities and YouBike rental stations were obtained from
Taipei City and New Taipei City governments. Data on population
educational attainment were obtained from the Ministry of Interior.
Household income data were collected from the Ministry of Finance.
Car and motorcycle registrations were acquired from the Ministry of
Transportation and Communications. Land use data were obtained from
the Land Use Investigation Database provided by the National Land
Surveying and Mapping Center. Floor area data were obtained from the
house tax databases of the Revenue Service Offices of Taipei and New
Taipei Cities. Employment data were collected from the Commerce and
Service Census published by the Directorate-General of Budget,
Accounting and Statistics. Traffic accident data were acquired from the
National Police Agency. Slopes were estimated using the digital topo-
graphy database provided by the Department of Land Administration
under the Ministry of Interior. Intersections, road lengths and OD dis-
tances were estimated using the digital maps of roadway networks from
the Institute of Transportation under the Ministry of Transportation and
Communications.
Some of the variable data were statistics provided by Li, which is the
most basic administration unit in Taiwan. Considering the boundaries
of Lis are not consistent with that of rental station areas, this research
measured these variables, including the variables of density, diversity,
demography and mobility, in accordance with the following two prin-
ciples. Firstly, if a renal station area was completely within a single Li’s

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H.-C. Liu, J.-J. Lin
boundary, then its variable values were the same as the Li’s values.
Secondly, if a rental station area was geographically covered by mul-
tiple Lis' boundaries, then its variable values were as follows:
xj = pjk xk
k Kj (1)
where xj is the variable value of rental station area j; pjk is the land area
proportion of rental station area j belonging to Li k; k Kj pjk = 1; xk is
the variable value of Li k; Kj is the set of Lis whose boundaries cover
rental station area j. No situation with two or more rental station areas
was completely within a single Li’s boundary.
4. Results and discussions
4.1. Spatiotemporal patterns of PBS use
On the basis of the results of the cluster analyses, we identified not
only four clusters of PBS use for the records of borrowing on weekdays
(BW), the records of borrowing on holidays (BH) and the records of return
on holidays (RH) but also five clusters for the records of return on
weekdays (RW). Each cluster contained at least 20 observations.
Fig. 4 shows the temporal distributions of the average DTRs among
the observations for each cluster in the four conditions (BW, BH, RW
and RH). Three dissimilarities existed in the results about weekdays and
holidays. Firstly, morning peaks were more obvious on weekdays than
on holidays because of the reduced time stress of travel departure in the
morning on holidays. Secondly, the DTR distributions among the clus-
ters were more different on weekdays than on holidays. Changes in DTR
over time on weekdays revealed more diverse patterns than those on
holidays. For example, the borrowing records on weekdays revealed
Fig. 4. The temporal distributions of DTRs among the identified clusters.
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Journal of Transport Geography 74 (2019) 299–312
that cluster A contained three peaks, cluster B had only an evening
peak, cluster C had only a morning peak, and cluster D corresponded to
morning and evening peaks. However, only quantity differences existed
among the clusters on holidays. Thirdly, the DTRs during daytime and
evening on holidays were generally higher than those on weekdays,
whereas the DTRs at midnight/early morning were consistently low
regardless of the period. The peaks of the DTRs appeared to be more
significant among the return records than among the borrowing records
on weekdays or holidays.
Fig. 5 shows the temporal distributions of ODDs in four conditions,
and no significant difference was observed between borrowing and
return records. Three characteristics were notable. Firstly, the ODDs at
midnight/early morning were obviously longer than those during the
daytime and evening. Travelers were forced to use PBS to complete
their trips because no other public transport service operated at mid-
night in Taipei, and taking taxis was relatively expensive. Secondly, the
variations in ODDs among the clusters on weekdays were greater than
those on holidays. This condition implied that PBS use on holidays
could be consistent in terms of OD distance. Thirdly, the ODDs during
holidays were generally longer than those on weekdays possibly be-
cause PBS use on holidays was reported to be mostly for leisure-related
purposes. In the Taipei PBS survey, trip purposes of shopping, en-
tertainment, recreation, sports, and tourism revealed longer rental
durations than other purposes (Thi Consultants Inc, 2015). The dis-
cussions illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5 implied that PBS use on weekdays
exhibited more diverse spatiotemporal attributes than that on holidays.
Moreover, they suggested that PBS operators should distinguish man-
agement policies on weekdays and holidays.
Based on Figs. 4 and 5, Table 2 highlights the clusters that revealed
the highest and second-highest performances on various attributes
under four conditions. This research characterized the clusters on the
H.-C. Liu, J.-J. Lin Journal of Transport Geography 74 (2019) 299–312

Fig. 5. The temporal distributions of ODDs among the identified clusters.

Table 2 basis of these highlights. Among the BW records, cluster A revealed a

Spatiotemporal attributes and patterns. pattern of high DTR, multiple usage peaks and long ODD (i.e. HML pat-
Attributes DTR DTR peak(s) ODD
tern), which was mainly located at the city center (Fig. 6 [a]). Cluster B
revealed a pattern of long ODD (i.e. –L pattern) mostly located at the
Peak number Morning peak Evening peak city periphery. Cluster D showed a pattern of high DTR and multiple
usage peaks (i.e. HM-) distributed along the metro lines in the city
Patterns
periphery and the areas surrounding the city center. For the RW re-
Borrowing on weekdays
(HML) A ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ cords, cluster A revealed an HML pattern and was mostly located at the
(–L) B □ city center and along the metro lines at the city periphery (Fig. 6 [b]).
C Cluster B revealed an HM- pattern, and its distribution is similar to that
(HM-) D □ □ □ □
of cluster A. Cluster C exhibited an –L pattern mainly located at the city
Return on weekdays periphery. Clusters A and B of the BH records displayed a pattern of high
(HML) A ■ ■ □ ■ ■ DTR and long ODD (i.e. H-L) mainly distributed along the metro lines
(HM-) B □ ■ ■ □
(–L) C □
(Fig. 6 [c]). Finally, among the RH records, clusters A and B revealed an
D □ H-L pattern and a distribution similar to clusters A and B of the BH
E records (Fig. 6[d]). Thus, this research identified three characterized
Borrowing on holidays patterns of PBS usage on weekdays: HML and HM in the city center and
(H-L) A □ □ □ along the metro lines in the city periphery and –L in the city periphery.
(H-L) B ■ ■ ■ One characterized pattern on holidays was also identified: H-L along
C
the metro lines.
D

Return on holidays
(H-L) A □ □ □
4.2. Associations of built environments with PBS usage patterns
(H-L) B ■ ■ ■
C To clarify the association of built environment attributes with the
D spatiotemporal patterns of PBS use, we used the clusters that had no
obvious characteristic in Table 2 as the base alternatives and estimated
Note: ■ denotes the highest performance among clusters, □ denotes the 2nd
the MNL regression models by applying NLOGIT 6.0 and the maximum
highest performance among clusters; HML denotes the pattern of high DTR,
multiple usage peaks and long ODD, –L denotes the pattern of long ODD, HM-
likelihood method. The Appendix lists the estimated results of the BW,
denotes the pattern of high DTR and multiple usage peaks, H-L denotes the RW, BH and RH models. Explanatory variables with coefficient sig-
pattern of high DTR and long ODD; C, D and E denote the base alternatives in nificances below α = 0.1 in all utility functions were collected from the
the multinomial logit regressions. estimations. The MNL models included base models that considered
control variables and extended models that considered control and built

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Fig. 6. Geographical distributions of the PBS rental stations of the identified clusters.

environment variables. The results of the likelihood ratio tests to ex-
amine the significance levels of the superior goodness-of-fit of the ex-
tended models relative to that of the base models revealed that the built
environment attributes significantly contributed in explaining PBS
usage patterns.
Based on the results in the Appendix, Table 3 presents the sig-
nificant associations of the explanatory variables with the identified
clusters of PBS use in the extended models. For example, ‘-(BD)’ at the
top left corner indicates that employment density was negatively as-
sociated with clusters B and D which were characterized as patterns –L

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Table 3 Table 4
Multinomial logit regression results. Associations of built environment variables with PBS usage patterns.
Model Borrowing on Return on Borrowing on Return on Patterns Weekdays Holidays
weekdays weekdays holidays holidays
Variables HML HM- –L H-L
Base cluster C E D D
Built environments
Built environments Density
Density Population density /−
Population − (AD) + (C) Employment density −/+ −/+
density Student density-E −/ +/+
Employment − (BD) + (BC) + (C) Student density-H +/+
density Building density −/− −/− −/− −/−
Student density- − (A) + (ABC) + (BC) Diversity
E Land use mix +/
Student density- + (ABC) + (AB) Commercial ratio +/ +/
H JH balance −/
Building density − (ABD) − (ABCD) − (A) − (AC) Design
Diversity Arterial length
Land use mix + (A) Street length /− /− −/
Commercial + (AB) + (D) Intersection +/
ratio Bikeway /− +/+
JH balance − (B) − (C) Greenness /+ −/
Design Tree −/
Arterial length − (D) Lamp /+ /+ −/−
Street length − (B) − (ABD) Destination accessibility
Intersection + (BC) Local center /−
Bikeway − (C) + (ABC) + (A) Education facility −/
Greenness + (C) − (A) Leisure facility +/ +/ +/+
Tree + (D) − (A) Retailer +/+ +/
Lamp + (AC) − (B) − (A) Distance to transit
Destination accessibility Metro distance −/− −/ /+ −/−
Local center − (C) Bus distance /−
Education − (AC) − (C) Distribution of PBS
facility PBS station +/
Leisure facility + (AD) + (AB) + (AB) PBS dock +/− +/ /− /+
Retailer + (AD) + (A)
Controls
Distance to transit
Demography
Metro distance − (AD) − (A); + − (AB) − (B)
Age 15–64 −/
(CD)
Gender ratio /−
Bus distance − (B)
Higher education +/+ +/+ +/ +/+
Distribution of PBS
Income +/ +/+
PBS station + (A)
Mobility
PBS dock + (AD) − (AC) + (A)
Car +/ +/ +/
Controls Scooter
Demography Environment
Age 15–64 − (A) Slop −/ −/
Gender ratio − (C) Accident −/ −/ −/
Higher + (ABD) + (ABD) + (A) + (AB)
education Note: HML, –L, HM- and H-L are defined in Table 2; +: positive association, −:
Income + (AD) + (B) negative association, borrowing / return.
Mobility
Car + (ABD)
Scooter peaks and long OD distances. In response to the HML pattern, system
Environment operators should focus on equipping large-scale PBS stations, operating
Slop − (AB) − (C) − (C) bicycle rebalancing mechanisms during peak hours on weekdays and
Accident − (ABD) considering large hinterlands of rental stations within the aforemen-
tioned built environments. As HML stations were mainly located at the
Note: +: positive association; −: negative association; all of the associations
are significant at α = 0.1, details are listed in Appendix; A, B, C, D and E denote
city center and along the metro lines in the city periphery (Fig. 6 [a],
the clusters in Figs. 4 and 5. [b]), the negative associations of the density variables with the HML
pattern in Table 4 indicates that middle-density areas were more prone
and HM-, respectively, in Table 2 in the BW model. Table 3 suggests to exhibit the HML pattern than low-density areas.
that the associations of the explanatory variables with PBS usage The HM- pattern was positively related to the accessibility to leisure
clusters partially varied with the borrowing and return records on facilities or retailers, proximity to metro stations and number of PBS
weekdays and holidays. Considering that the information in Table 2 is docks. These associations implied that PBS stations near leisure facil-
complicated to discuss, we applied the characterized patterns in Table 2 ities, retailers or metro stations tended to record high DTRs and mul-
to reorganize the findings of Table 3 into Table 4 and clarified the built tiple usage peaks. For the HM- pattern, system operators should focus
environment attributes that were found to be related to PBS usage on equipping large-scale PBS stations and operating bicycle rebalancing
patterns. mechanisms during peak hours on weekdays within the built environ-
Table 4 suggests that the HML pattern was positively related to land ments. These results suggested that the built environment attributes
use mix, commercial ratio, street lamps, accessibility to leisure facilities related to the HML pattern were also associated with the HM- pattern
or retailers and proximity to metro stations. These associations implied except land use mix and commercial ratio.
that PBS stations within mixed land use, commercial or recreational The –L pattern was positively related to commercial ratio, job–-
areas or near metro stations tend to record high DTRs, multiple usage housing imbalance, green space, number of lamps and distance to metro

308
H.-C. Liu, J.-J. Lin
stations. These associations implied that PBS stations within an area
that are mostly occupied by single land use (commerce, employment,
residence or green space) or far from metro stations tended to record
long OD distances on weekdays. For the –L pattern, system operators
should focus on considering large hinterlands of rental stations within
the built environments.
Finally, the H-L pattern on holidays was positively associated with
student density, number of intersections, bikeway length, accessibility to
leisure facilities, proximity to metro stations and number of PBS stations
and nearby docks. A high student density was usually related to large/
many campuses in an area, and campuses were mostly opened for leisure/
sports activities on holidays in Taiwan. As the H-L pattern was mainly
distributed along the metro lines, PBS stations that were near metro sta-
tions and surrounded by bicycle and leisure facilities tended to record high
DTRs and long OD distances on holidays. For the H-L pattern, system
operators should focus on equipping large-scale PBS stations, considering
large hinterlands of rental stations or operating bicycle replenishment at
small-scale stations on holidays within the built environments.
4.3. Remarks
On the basis of the empirical findings, we present the following
remarks to broaden the knowledge on the spatiotemporal patterns of
PBS use.
Remark 1. The spatiotemporal patterns of PBS use on weekdays
significantly differ from those on holidays.
Specifically, three differences are found in this research. 1) The
differences in the temporal distributions of DTRs and ODDs among the
patterns on weekdays are larger than those on holidays. 2) Multiple
peaks of DTRs exist on weekdays, whereas only an evening peak of DTR
appears on holidays. 3) The DTR and ODD in the daytime and evening
on holidays are generally higher than those on weekdays. The second
difference is also reported in the studies on Velib in Paris (Come and
Oukhellou, 2014) and Divvy in Chicago (Zhou, 2015), whereas the two
other differences have yet to be reported. Remark 1 implies that the
management policies for PBSs should vary on weekdays and holidays.
Remark 2. The spatiotemporal patterns of PBS use are associated with
different locations in a city.
The four identified PBS usage patterns in this study have specific
locations. On the basis of the empirical evidence in Fig. 6, we propose a
location hypothesis (Fig. 7). On weekdays, PBS use shows HML or HM-
patterns at PBS stations that are located in the city center and along the
metro lines due to commuting travels. For PBS stations in the city
periphery, the –L pattern emerges because of a low PBS station density.
On holidays, PBS stations along metro lines mostly exhibit the H-L
pattern because travels for leisure and daily activities usually do not
show multiple usage peaks. The location hypothesis is new in the lit-
erature and requires additional surveys in cities similar to Taipei for
confirmation and future revision. According to the clustering results of
O'Brien et al. (2014), Taipei City is relatively similar to Nantong,
Brisbane, Heihe, Dublin, Rennes, Mexico City, and Milan among the 38
investigated cities in terms of the system and usage attributes of PBSs.
metro line
city center
city periphery
HML & HM-
Fig. 7. Location hypothesis of spatial-temporal patterns of PBS uses.
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Journal of Transport Geography 74 (2019) 299–312
Remark 3. The spatiotemporal patterns of PBS use are associated with
land use and facilities.
In general, the HML pattern is positively related to mixed or com-
mercial land use and proximity to leisure facilities, retailers and metro
stations. The HM- pattern is positively related to proximity to leisure
facilities, retailers and metro stations. The –L pattern mostly occurs
within an area that is mainly occupied by a single land use and is far from
metro stations. The H-L pattern is positively associated with proximity to
bicycle facilities, leisure facilities and metro stations. Although the em-
pirical findings of this research have not been reported, a number of
surveys have revealed that PBS use is positively related to biking facil-
ities, accessibility of leisure facilities and daily life places and proximity
to metro stations and PBS stations (Daddio, 2012; El-Assi et al., 2017;
Faghih-Imani and Eluru, 2016a, 2016b; Faghih-Imani et al., 2014;
Faghih-Imani et al., 2014; Maurer, 2011; Rixey, 2013; Tran et al., 2015;
Wang et al., 2015). Furthermore, the land use entropy index and com-
mercial ratio are positively related to general bicycle usage (Moudon
et al., 2005; Winters et al., 2010; Zhao, 2014). These relationships are
associated with the high turnover rates of the HML, HM-, and H-L pat-
terns and support the findings of this research to a certain degree.
5. Conclusions
In this research, multiple rental station clusters are identified in terms
of the temporal distributions of the DTRs and ODDs by examining the
rental records of Taipei PBS through hierarchical clustering analyses. Four
spatiotemporal patterns of PBS usage at rental stations are characterized
on the basis of DTR, peaks of DTRs and ODDs. The associations of these
patterns with built environments are clarified using MNL regressions. On
the basis of the empirical findings, this research proposes three remarks in
Subsection 4.3 that can serve as reference for PBS operators and for future
investigations/confirmations in other cities that are similar to Taipei.
This study contributes to the existing literature through the fol-
lowing implications. Firstly, the empirical findings in Section 4 fill the
knowledge gap pertaining to the associations of built environment at-
tributes with the spatial and temporal patterns of PBS use. To the best of
our knowledge, the associations have yet to be fully clarified in existing
literature. Secondly, the findings provide valuable information for PBS
operators in planning and managing PBS schemes in Taipei and other
cities in a similar context. The suggestions raised in Subsection 4.2 are
considered to assist PBS operators to improve services.
To clarify the relationships between the built environments and the
spatiotemporal attributes of PBS use, future studies should focus on three
issues that reflect the limitation of this research. The first issue is related to
the time span of the study data. The PBS rental records within the last
6 months in 2015 are used as the study data in this research, and seasonal
comparisons of PBS use are not conducted. Seasonal differences in spa-
tiotemporal attributes exist because monthly PBS rentals in winter (January
or February) are about half to two-thirds of those in summer (July or
August) in the TMA. Future studies should use data covering a period of
1 year to ensure yearly representativeness and realize seasonal comparison.
The second issue is related to the comprehensive attributes of built
environments that are associated with PBS use. The behavioral model of
the environment proposed by Moudon and Lee (2003) suggests three
--L H-L
H.-C. Liu, J.-J. Lin Journal of Transport Geography 74 (2019) 299–312

components of the environment that can influence walking and biking:
the origin and destination of the walk or bike trip, the characteristics of
the route taken for these trips and the characteristics of the area in
which the trip takes place. The present study uses rental stations as
observations and considers the built environment attributes of origins/
destinations and areas but overlooks the route attributes because of the
absence of travel route records. To examine the comprehensive attri-
butes of the environment, future studies should consider the attributes
along travel routes to explain PBS use if route records are available.
The third issue is associated with the different types of PBS. YouBike
is a dock-based PBS in which users must borrow and return public bikes
at docks in rental stations. In recent years, an alternative system called
dockless PBS or dockless bike share has emerged, especially in China. A
dockless PBS does not require rental stations, and public bikes can be
located and unlocked using a smartphone app. The rental records of a
dockless PBS provide more precise attributes of a trip, such as its final
origin/destination and travel route, than those of a dock-based PBS.
Few studies, such as Shen et al. (2018) in Singapore, have investigated
the GPS data of dockless PBS. The spatiotemporal attributes of dockless
PBS use should reveal novel and valuable patterns, and their associa-
tions with built environments should be investigated in the future.
Acknowledgements
This research is financially supported by Ministry of Science and
Technology in Taiwan (MOST 103-2410-H-002-160-SS2) and NTU
Research Center for Future Earth (NTU-107L901004).

Appendix A. Multinomial logit regressions

Borrowing on weekdays (BW) (Base: C) A B D

Base model Extended model Base model Extended model Base model Extended model

Intercept 13.923⁎ 8.349 −3.711 −0.088 2.763 0.404

Controls
Age 15–64 −31.502⁎⁎⁎ −21.476⁎⁎ −3.846 2.122 −7.868 −1.895
Gender ratio 5.191⁎ 3.435 5.205⁎⁎ 2.698 2.027 0.867
Higher education 12.092⁎⁎⁎ 19.448⁎⁎⁎ 11.409⁎⁎⁎ 17.483⁎⁎⁎ 7.616⁎⁎ 13.012⁎⁎⁎
Income 0.002⁎⁎ 0.001 0.000 0.000 0.002⁎⁎ 0.001
Car 6.012⁎⁎⁎ 8.977⁎⁎⁎ 2.709 4.502⁎ −0.356 4.973⁎
Scooter −0.651 −0.542 2.572⁎⁎ 1.219 0.984 −0.503
Slop −0.732⁎⁎⁎ −0.435⁎⁎⁎ −0.166⁎⁎⁎ −0.185⁎⁎ −0.175⁎⁎⁎ −0.097
Accident −150.140 −252.569⁎⁎ −321.529⁎⁎⁎ −251.976⁎⁎ −136.406 −167.372⁎

Built environments
Employment density −91.211 −187.524⁎⁎⁎ −122.413⁎⁎
Student density-E −131.240⁎⁎ 57.765 65.826
Building density −0.484⁎⁎⁎ −0.343⁎⁎ −0.353⁎⁎⁎
Land use mix 5.547⁎ 2.960 3.636
Commercial ratio 19.490⁎⁎ 28.241⁎⁎⁎ 11.706
JH balance −5.779 −9.404⁎ −6.760
Street length −74.746 −80.949⁎⁎ 35.617
Leisure facility 0.160⁎⁎ 0.097 0.107⁎
Retailer 0.016⁎⁎ 0.008 0.010⁎
Metro distance −0.001⁎ 0.000 −0.001⁎
PBS dock 682.418⁎⁎ −277.361 570.197⁎
Base model ρ2=0.269
Extend model ρ2=0.447
Base model χ2=253.633⁎⁎⁎
Extend model χ2=421.993⁎⁎⁎
Likelihood ratio test χ2=168.361⁎⁎⁎
Note: ⁎⁎⁎significant at α = 0.01, ⁎⁎significant at α = 0.05, ⁎significant at α = 0.1.

Return on weekdays (RW) (Base = E) A B C D

Base model Extend model Base model Extend model Base model Extend model Base model Extend model

Intercept 8.652 ⁎
2.682 10.140⁎
2.355 10.638⁎⁎
12.292⁎⁎
3.865 0.527

Controls
Age 15–64 −16.734⁎⁎ −7.768 −22.358⁎⁎⁎ −8.587 −12.191⁎ −10.101 −12.618 2.131
Gender ratio 0.786 0.616 3.519⁎⁎ 1.991 −2.421 −7.422⁎⁎ 3.533⁎ −0.324
Higher education 13.054⁎⁎⁎ 19.813⁎⁎⁎ 6.567⁎⁎ 12.521⁎⁎⁎ 4.280 4.307 7.475⁎ 13.194⁎⁎
Income −0.000 −0.000 0.001⁎ 0.001⁎ −0.000 0.001 −0.000 0.000
Slop −0.080 −0.045 −0.174⁎⁎ −0.156 0.039 0.066 −0.087 −0.163

Built environments
Population density −725.654⁎ −465.132 43.437 −1026.840⁎
Employment density 64.909 82.927⁎ 124.739⁎⁎⁎ 61.245
Building density −0.387⁎⁎⁎ −0.246⁎ −0.336⁎⁎ −0.329⁎
Commercial ratio 5.990 8.861 4.974 16.476⁎⁎
Arterial length −27.853 −4.950 19.106 −206.860⁎⁎
Street length −139.891⁎ −156.054⁎⁎⁎ −55.354 −344.693⁎⁎⁎
Bikeway 173.902 166.757 −389.248⁎⁎ −107.534
Greenness 3.653 0.157 8.761⁎ −3.779
Tree 419.297 604.344 432.341 1377.820⁎⁎
Lamp 1411.540⁎⁎ 303.617 1959.960⁎⁎⁎ 1653.420
Local center −0.000 0.000 −0.001⁎⁎ 0.000

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Retailer 0.008⁎ 0.004 0.002 0.003

Metro distance −0.001⁎ 0.000 0.001⁎⁎ 0.001⁎
Bus distance −0.000 −0.002⁎ −0.001 −0.003
PBS dock −448.028⁎⁎ −128.231 −1727.660⁎⁎⁎ −205.428
Basic model ρ2=0.139
Extend model ρ2=0.356
Basic model χ2=152.411⁎⁎⁎
Extend model χ2=390.621⁎⁎⁎
Likelihood ratio test χ2=238.210⁎⁎⁎
Note: ⁎⁎⁎significant at α = 0.01, ⁎⁎significant at α = 0.05, ⁎significant at α = 0.1

Borrowing on holidays (BH) (Base = D) A B C

Base model Extend model Base model Extend model Base model Extend model

Intercept 5.105 −0.753 4.558 1.123 7.850⁎⁎ 4.694

Controls
Age 15–64 −12.689⁎⁎⁎ −1.125 −13.675⁎⁎ −4.696 −9.025⁎⁎ −4.861
Higher education 4.520⁎ 5.369⁎⁎ 3.223 5.093 −0.393 0.364
Car −0.552 0.856 1.728 1.887 −2.328⁎ −1.044
Slop −0.161⁎⁎⁎ −0.088 −1.690⁎⁎ −1.576 −0.145⁎⁎⁎ −0.141⁎⁎

Built environments
Population density 276.120 319.453 461.733⁎
Student density-E 123.265⁎⁎ 183.093⁎ 82.335⁎
Student density-H 101.113⁎⁎⁎ 126.410⁎⁎⁎ 91.495⁎⁎⁎
Building density −0.308⁎⁎⁎ −0.030 0.024
JH balance −1.377 −1.326 −2.579⁎
Intersection 739.506 6132.090⁎ 3053.350⁎⁎
Bikeway 333.345⁎⁎⁎ 311.594⁎⁎ 146.238⁎
Greenness −6.892⁎⁎ 0.784 0.461
Tree −525.113⁎ −295.274 −224.499
Lamp −603.577 −1993.270⁎ −362.057
Education facility −0.210⁎⁎⁎ −0.253 −0.096⁎
Leisure facility 0.092⁎⁎⁎ 0.149⁎⁎⁎ 0.099
Metro distance −0.001⁎⁎ −0.003⁎⁎ −0.000
PBS station 44,378.700⁎⁎⁎ 15,286.400 8611.590
Base model ρ2=0.099
Extend model ρ2=0.224
Base model χ2=85.593⁎⁎⁎
Extend model χ2=194.138⁎⁎⁎
Likelihood ratio test χ2=108.545⁎⁎⁎
Note: ⁎⁎⁎significant at α = 0.01, ⁎⁎significant at α = 0.05, ⁎significant at α = 0.1

Return on holidays (RH) (Base = D) A B C

Base model Extend model Base model Extend model Base model Extend model

Intercept −1.125 −1.538 −1.772 2.355 −1.230 12.292⁎

Controls
Higher education 6.251⁎⁎ 6.911⁎⁎ 4.226 8.413⁎⁎ 2.307 2.142
Income 0.000 −0.000 0.000 −0.000 0.001⁎ 0.000
Slop −0.099 −0.076 −1.441⁎ −1.230 −0.224⁎⁎⁎ −0.124⁎

Built environments
Employment density 10.319 20.770 32.902⁎⁎
Student density-E −22.659 194.792⁎⁎ 91.843⁎⁎
Student density-H 41.957⁎ 62.408⁎ 30.257
Building density −0.397⁎⁎⁎ −0.039 −0.168⁎⁎
Bikeway 228.793⁎⁎⁎ 28.116 98.160
Lamp −1331.470⁎⁎ −488.602 223.957
Education facility −0.097 −0.242 −0.109⁎
Leisure facility 0.075⁎⁎ 0.113⁎⁎⁎ 0.007
Metro distance −0.000 −0.003⁎⁎ −0.000
PBS station 22,271.700⁎⁎ 13,063.100 11,315.000
Base model ρ2=0.098
Extend model ρ2=0.192
Base model χ2=74.012⁎⁎⁎
Extend model χ2=145.024⁎⁎⁎
Likelihood ratio test χ2=71.012⁎⁎⁎
Note: ***significant at α = 0.01 **significant at α = 0.05 *significant at α = 0.1

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