Cyclistic, a bike-share service launched in 2016, aims to convert casual riders into annual members by understanding the differences in usage patterns through extensive trip data analysis. Casual riders tend to use the service predominantly on weekends with longer trip durations, while members utilize the service consistently throughout the week for commuting, favoring classic bikes. Recommendations include creating a weekend-only membership option and running targeted promotions to balance the usage between casual and member riders.

1. Cyclistic: How does a bike share
navigate speedy success?
Presented by: Oliver Carey
Last updated: 03/02/2023

2. Contents
1. About Cyclistic
2. Business task
3. Cyclistic bike-share data
4. Total trips
5. Trip duration
6. Bike demand
7. Ride type
8. Conclusions

3. 1. About Cyclistic bike-share
● In 2016, Cyclistic launched a successful bike-share service
● Since then, the programme has grown to a fleet of 5,824 bicycles that are geotracked and
locked into a network of 692 stations across Chicago
● Cyclistic bike share service offers 3 ride types:
○ Classic bike
○ Docked bike
○ Electric bike

4. ● Until now, Cyclistic’s marketing strategy relied on building general awareness
and appealing to broad consumer segments
● One approach that helped make these things possible was the flexibility of its
pricing plans: single-ride passes, full-day passes, and annual memberships
○ Customers who purchase single-ride or full-day passes are referred to as
casual riders.
○ Customers who purchase annual memberships are Cyclistic members

5. 2. Business Task
● Marketing team needs to design marketing strategies aimed at converting casual
riders into annual members. In order to do that, the marketing analyst team needs
to better understand how annual members and casual riders differ
● Objective for this analysis is to gain insight from existing data to shed light on how
the two types of customers use Cyclistic bikeshare

6. 3. Cyclistic bike-share data
● 31 datasets showing Cyclistic’s historical trip data have been made available to
capture the details of every ride logged between April 2020 and December 2022 by
the customers of Cyclistic
● The data has been made available by Motivate International Inc. under this license.

7. 4. Total trips

8. Total trips by year
● Big jump in total rides from
2020 to 2021
○ Post-covid cycle boom
hit
○ See a large increase in
both casual and member
riders
● Fall in casual riders from 2021
to 2022
● Member numbers have stayed
at a similar level since boom in
2021
● Number of trips made by
members is always higher than
the casual riders across all 3
years

9. Total trips by
month
● Most busy months for both
member and casual riders are
July, August and September
○ Number of casual riders
exceeds members in
July
● Least busy months for both
member and casual riders are
January, February, March &
December
○ Seasonal weather could
effect rider usage.
○ Peak in riders during
summer months
○ Dip during winter
months.

10. Total trips by
weekday
● Casual riders
○ Most rides at weekends
○ Huge peak in number of
rides on Saturday
○ During weekdays
number of rides drops
considerably
● Members
○ Number of rides are
more consistent through
the week
○ Stays above 100,000
○ Least rides on Sunday
● Clear difference in members
and casual riders
weekday/weekend usage

11. 5. Trip duration

12. Trip duration by
year
● Duration of rides has been
decreasing year by year for both
customer types
● Average trip duration for casual
riders fell from over 40 minutes
in 2020 to less than 30 minutes
in 2022
● Analysis of total trips showed
the effect of the covid bike
boom.
● Massive increase in number of
trips in 2021 may be behind the
decline in average trip duration

13. Trip duration by
month
● Member riders average trip
duration is between 10-20
minutes throughout the
year
● Casual riders average trip
duration fluctuates
depending on time of the
year
○ From as low as 25
minutes in December
○ To ~40 minutes in
June

14. Trip duration by
weekday
● Casual rider average trip
duration is more than
double that of members
● Both customer types
average longer trips on
weekends compared to
weekdays

15. 6. Bike demand

16. Bike demand over
a 24 hour day
● Members and casual riders
both have peak in demand
between 5-7 PM
● Members have a 2nd peak
in demand between 7-9 AM
● It’s possible the majority of
members are work
commuters due to the
timings of high demand

17. 7. Ride type

18. Demand for each
ride type
● Members have a strong
preference for classic bikes
but also like to use the
electric bike
● Casual riders prefer electric
bikes but are relatively split
between electric bike and
classic bike
● Docked bikes are the least in
demand ride type
● Docked bikes are more
preferred by casual riders
than members

19. Bike demand in each
ride type over a day
● All bike types have peak
demand between 5 - 7 PM
● Significant peak in
members using the classic
bike between 5-7 PM
● Classic bike is the bike of
choice for commuters
● Docked bike is the only
bike type where casual
riders have periods of
higher demand than
members

20. 8. Conclusions

21. Key differences
Casual riders:
● Use bike share services more during weekends
● Usually take the bikes out for a long duration
● Average trip duration more than twice that of
member rider group on any day of the week.
● Prefer electric bikes and use docked bikes
significantly more than members
● Average trip duration fluctuates depending on
time of the year
● Use bike share services mostly in summer
months
Member riders:
● Use bike share services consistently over the
entire week
● Analysis strongly suggests majority use bike
share services for commuting to work
● Strong preference for classic bikes
● Average trip duration between 10-20 minutes
throughout the year

22. Recommendations
● Offering alternative memberships where casual riders can purchase a weekend only annual membership with the option to
upgrade
○ Analysis found that a large majority of casual riders only use the bike share service on weekends and not through
the week. Alternative membership options could convert casual riders into members
● Running promotions and discounted pricing during off-peak hours during the weekdays to get more customers using the
bike share through the week
○ Analysis found that casual riders were not using the bikeshare uniformly across the week. Attractive promotions for
casual riders on weekdays could help level out demand over the week
● Run marketing campaign between March and April when number of casual riders begins to increase.
○ Analysis found that the peak time for casual riders using the bike share services is July. Running campaign to
convert casual riders to members in the lead up to this would maximise new membership

23. Thank you for viewing my
presentation!
If you have any feedback please email me (olivercareyncl@gmail.com)