PROJECT FINAL PAPER
EE1 Summary: Capital Bikeshare and the Post-COVID Market Environment
Huiling Liu, Jiaying Zhou, Min Jiang, Shreya Sawant, Yi Kiu Ho, Zuo Wang
CIAM
BUS501
Dr. Edmund Khashadourian
June 15, 2025
EE1 Summary: Capital Bikeshare and the Post-COVID Market Environment
The U.S bike-sharing market has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies should therefore evaluate the potential opportunities to support the market’s infrastructure. As the Capital Bikeshare team, we are developing the Cycle Right helmet for our customers. The helmet gives our customers stylish, safety-oriented features that improve their riding experience. This analysis will inform the optimal timing and design strategy for introducing our product in alignment with micromobility trends and usage patterns. This report combines contextual information from the Ivey case study and recent Statista market data to create a well-rounded view of current conditions.
Capital Bikeshare Overview (from Ivey case)
Capital Bikeshare was launched in 2010 as a public-private partnership that the District Department of Transportation aimed to provide mobility to Americans. The firm worked hand in hand with Motivate, a New York-based bike-sharing company, to improve people’s driving experience. The Capital Bikeshare system has provided customers with over 4,300 bicycles in 500 stations across Washington (Xiong, 2021). Capital Bikeshare provides its customers with membership options; it allows customers to rent their bikes frequently. The bikeshare system generated large volumes of trip data, which was instrumental in understanding rider behavior and planning system expansions. As noted in the case, usage patterns were affected by seasonality, temperature, and weather conditions, which made demand forecasting and expansion planning essential.
Market Trends and Post-COVID Outlook
The study collected data from Statista that highlighted the current micromobility trends in the bike-sharing market in the U.S. The results indicate that the market has rebounded significantly since COVID-19. Statista (2024, B) forecasts that the bike-sharing market will increase from $0.8 billion in 2023 to more than $1.1 billion by 2029. The U.S bike-sharing market is experiencing an increase in the number of riders. Statista (2023, B) also forecast that the U.S shared ride market will have 60 million new customers by 2028. Many Americans are using station-based bike sharing services for various trip purposes. These purposes include commuting, recreation, errands, and social activities (Statista, 2023, A). There is also an increase in the number of shared rides in the U.S. Statista (2023, C) indicates that the industry had 186 and 188 shared ride customers in 2023 and 2024, respectively. The market will have 195 million shared rides by 2028. Figure 1 and Figure 2 indicate the shared micromobility trips in 2022 and the number of riders the market has gained in the last few years:
Figure 1. U.S. bike-sharing market revenue from 2017 to 2029, in billions of U.S. dollars (Statista, 2024).
Figure 2. Number of shared micromobility trips in the United States in 2022, by trip purpose (Statista, 2023).
The demand for dockless bike-share systems has declined in the last few years. Statista (2024, A) highlights that there were 348 stations in 2022, which later declined to 306 in 2023. The market share later declined to 254 stations in 2022. The emergence of the e-scooter bike system has triggered the decline of the dockless bike-share system. The following chart highlights the trends in dockless bike-share systems in the U.S market in the last seven years:
Figure 3. Number of dockless bike-share and e-scooter systems in the U.S. from 2017 to 2024 (Statista, 2024).
Figure 3 indicates that the bike-sharing environment is recovering and evolving into a more integrated part of urban transportation infrastructure.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant decline in bike-sharing ridership. The pandemic did so by forcing many governments to initiate lockdowns to control the spread of the virus. These lockdowns restricted people’s movement (cycling included). However, as the government combated COVID-19 over time, the bike-sharing market shifted its usage pattern. Many individuals began using bikes for leisure and commuting near their residential areas (Teixeira et al., 2024). The market gained massive popularity as it helped customers to have good health by exercising their bodies and easing their minds.
Environmental Factors
We understand that weather conditions influence the demand and supply of bikes at certain periods. High temperatures and rain can impede a customer from buying a bike, affecting roads and a person’s resilience in riding through the extreme weather conditions (Gössling et al., 2023). In addition, there is a significant increase in governments developing smart cities and eco-conscious transportation systems for their citizens. It has helped the bike-sharing market grow rapidly as it has quality bikes that help customers conserve the environment and improve their commuting experience. We should therefore exploit smart cities to improve the riding experience for many Americans.
Application to Helmet Strategy (Cycle Right)
The Capital Bikeshare market share has significantly increased due to the emergence of innovative technologies like the Cycle Right helmet. The helmet has improved people’s riding experience by providing cell phone and AM/FM radio functionality. We can maximize visibility and adoption by aligning our launch with peak usage times, particularly during spring and summer months, when ridership is highest. The variety of trip types identified in both the case and Statista data suggests that Cycle Right should be designed for comfort, durability, and adaptability across multiple riding scenarios. To align with peak ridership during spring and summer, the Cycle Right helmet could be introduced as a pilot. Incorporating rental options or discounts could help gather user feedback and gauge adoption rates. We can integrate helmet rentals at our stations and provide friendly customer discounts. The strategy will allow us to quickly reach a huge target audience, increasing our sales and profit margins.
Conclusion
The Capital Bikeshare system represents a growing and dynamic micromobility environment. Insights from the Ivey case and external market data support the decision to move forward with Cycle Right development. The timing is favorable: demand is increasing, users are diversifying, and the infrastructure is expanding. We will regularly evaluate the bike-sharing market and integrate the current trends to ensure we improve the American riding experience.
References
Gössling, S., Neger, C., Steiger, R., & Bell, R. (2023). Weather, climate change, and transport: a review. Natural Hazards, 118(2), 1341-1360.
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11069-023-06054-2.pdf
Statista. (2023, August 21, A) . Shared micromobility trip segments in the United States in 2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1371122/us-shared-micromobility-trip-segments/
Statista. (2023, December 1, B). Worldwide - bike-sharing market size| Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/868126/global-bikesharing-market-size/
Statista. (2023, December 18, C). Number of shared ride users in the United States from 2019 to 2028. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104703/us-number-users-shared-rides/
Statista. (2024, July 10, A). Number of micromobility systems in the United States from 2017 to 2024. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1333174/us-number-of-micromobility-systems/
Statista. (2024, July 4, B). Revenue from the bike sharing market in the United States from 2017 to 2029. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1293490/united-states-bike-sharing-market-revenue/
Teixeira, J. F., Silva, C., & Moura e Sá, F. (2024). Potential of bike sharing during disruptive public health crises: A review of COVID-19 impacts. Transportation Research Record, 2678(12), 480-492. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/03611981231160537
Xiong, A. (2021). Capital Bikeshare: Analyzing Bike Rental Demand (Case No. 9B21E008). Ivey Publishing.