Understanding the modifiable areal unit problem in dockless bike sharing usage and exploring the interactive effects of built environment factors

Understanding the influence mechanisms of dockless bike-sharing usage is essential for land use planning and bike scheduling strategy implementation. Although various studies have been carried out to explore the impact of built environment (BE) factors on bike-sharing usage, few studies have examined the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP). Moreover, previous studies mainly focused on the separate effect of each factor but neglected the interactions between these factors. Taking Shenzhen, China as the case, this study fills these two gaps by employing the geographical detector method to examine the MAUP in dockless bike-sharing usage as well as the interactive effects of BE factors. The results revealed that the influences of most BE variables are sensitive to the spatial areal units, which have informed urban planners what built-environment factors should be paid more attention to at certain spatial scales. Additionally, through the comparisons between single effect and interactive effect, this study revealed some interesting findings that can provide scientific basis for temporal rebalance strategy for the innovative and high-density metropolis in China.