Reflections Week: Bike Sharing in Chicago

Bike share systems are seeing significant increase in adoption rates in cities across the US. At the same time, safer on-street cycling facilities such as protected bike lanes are also increasing. However, adoption rates of biking as a form of transportation vary widely within metropolitan areas with clearly higher utilization rates in some areas over others. What does the usage (non-usage) of bike sharing services tell us about who is riding, when, where, and how often they are riding? What are the other factors—social, technical, environmental, economic, and political—that explain what is actually happening on the ground? What motivates adoption (or not) of bike sharing systems?

Professors Santosh Basapur and Keiichi Sato led three teams of ID graduate students in a semester long Human Systems Integration workshop. The course focused on bike share adoption in Chicago especially the south and west side, particularly within the context of equity issues in marginalized areas of city. There are clearly lower adoption rates occurring in marginalized areas in Chicago and this project intended to study and if possible, suggest some design solutions.

The class went beyond the usual research and insights phase of projects (in 12 weeks time that had) and used Human-System Integration methods to design and suggest interventions that ensure the motivations and needs of people are considered throughout the system development process; especially with regard to people’s adoption of bike sharing, learning functions of new service, and their overall participation in systems’ operation. Student teams focused on providing insight to the system design and development process along with solutions. 

Join ID faculty, students, and stakeholders for final presentations and conversation on bike sharing in Chicago.