The Impact of Weather on Shared Bikes

This article explores the impact of weather and environment on shared bicycles. Using a random forest model combined with explanatory machine learning methods, the relationship, threshold effect, and interaction effect between weather factors and the transfer volume of shared bicycles at subway stations are analyzed. Research has shown that using the RF+IML method to study the impact of weather variables on shared bicycle transfer volume is feasible. There is a significant nonlinear relationship between various weather factors and shared bicycle transfers. Temperature, humidity, and rainfall have specific activation and threshold effects on the number of shared bicycle transfers. When humidity is below 60%, the variation in transfer volume remains relatively stable; however, once it exceeds 60%, the transfer volume drops sharply. When the temperature exceeds 17 °C, its impact tends to reach saturation. Similarly, when rainfall reaches around 20 mm, its adverse effect also approaches the threshold. Temperature is the most important factor affecting the prediction of shared bicycle transfer volume, with temperature, cold weather, and cold forecasts contributing over 35% to the total effect. The interaction effect between temperature and other weather factors accounts for 22% of the total effect.