Integration of e-scooter sharing with public transit on employment accessibility and equity

Abstract

E-scooter sharing (ESS) is an emerging shared micro-mobility that may enhance urban travel accessibility. This study investigates the potential of ESS used as the feeder to public transit to improve accessibility compared to sole public transit. Meanwhile, the relationships among accessibility gains, the built environment, and socioeconomic distributions are investigated based on multi-source big data. An empirical analysis in Gothenburg of Sweden demonstrates that ESS can substantially enhance accessibility within a 30-minute travel time, with 15% of areas showing statistically significant benefits. Moreover, the accessibility gains exhibit complex nonlinear relationships with the built environment and socioeconomic. High-income and native-born communities obtain an average of 80% accessibility gain, over 10% higher than other demographic groups. Some areas with significant concentrations of low-income and foreign-born populations rely on public transit but currently lack ESS to improve accessibility. Introducing ESS in these under-served areas could yield up to 143% accessibility gains.