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Category: Project

Description: In September 2017, the District began piloting dockless bike-share with three private companies: MoBike, Ofo, and Lime. Seemingly overnight, hundreds of bikes appeared on DC streets that could be rented by the minute and parked anywhere in the city. To inform the District Department of Transportation’s (DDOT) decision on whether and how to regulate these systems after the pilot, we analyzed ridership data from the dockless bike companies. We found that dockless bikes did not reduce the use of existing docked bikes (like Capital Bikeshare) and, in fact, increased overall bike ridership. After the pilot period, electric scooters were added to the District’s dockless transportation options.