Do micromobility systems promote public transit usage? Evidence from US Cities

We conduct the first U.S.-wide analysis, which includes over 100 cities, of the relationship between the number of micromobility systems and public transit ridership, which we proxy for using unlinked passenger trips (UPT) per capita. Our main study period is 2015 to 2019, during which we find that an additional micromobility system is associated with a statistically significant increase in UPT per capita of 0.026 (p < 0.01), which represents 1.2% of mean UPT per capita. Evaluating these effects by type of micromobility system, we find that only e-scooter systems exert a consistently statistically significant positive association. We also find: 1) that the effect is larger in less populated urban areas and; 2) when examining this effect after the COVID-19 pandemic (2022 to 2023), effects are insignificant or marginally significant. This implies micromobility systems complemented public transit before the pandemic, but the effect afterwards is less clear.