Evaluation of Bike-Sharing Usage Patterns for Urban Mobility Planning in Abuja

Micro-mobility services including bike-sharing are being piloted in Abuja to complement public transport, and usage pattern analysis provides evidence for service optimisation and urban planning integration. This study analysed six months of trip data from 3,200 registered users of a bike-sharing pilot scheme operating in Maitama, Wuse, and Garki districts of Abuja Municipal Area Council, Federal Capital Territory. Trip start and end coordinates, duration, distance, user demographics, and payment method were analysed. Descriptive statistics, spatial flow analysis using origin-destination matrices, and user clustering using K-Means were applied. Average trip duration was 22.4 minutes, covering 3.1 kilometres. Commuter trips constituting 41.7 percent of total trips concentrated between 7 AM to 9 AM and 5 PM to 7 PM. Recreational trips dominated on weekends, with an average distance 1.8 times longer than weekday trips. Seasonal analysis revealed a 42 percent drop in usage during March and April, consistent with peak harmattan dust conditions. Most-used corridors connected government districts to residential areas, suggesting a first-last mile commuting function. Female users were significantly underrepresented at 23.1 percent of registrations. Infrastructure barriers including limited dedicated cycling lanes were cited in user satisfaction surveys. Recommendations include infrastructure investment for cycling lanes along Abuja's major commuting corridors, targeted female user incentives, expansion of docking stations to underserved districts, and integration with FCTA public bus route planning.

Keywords: bike-sharing, urban mobility analytics, Abuja, micro-mobility, origin-destination analysis