U.S. docked bikeshare trips decline in September as BTS data show mixed city ridership

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U.S. bikeshare ridership dips

Highlights

Docked bikeshare trips across nine major U.S. systems decline 3.5% in September 2026 year-over-year after strong July and August gains.
New York's CitiBike trips drop 5.8% to 4,959,415 in September, while Chicago's Divvy and Philadelphia's Indego report gains of 8.1% and 8.4% respectively.
Total U.S. spending on bicycles rises just 0.3% inflation-adjusted from August 2025 to August 2026, indicating stable broad consumer demand.

September ridership trends across major systems

As reported by Bureau of Transportation Statistics, docked bikeshare trips for July through September 2026 show a year-over-year slowdown in September after increases in July and August. Trips starting and ending at a docking station on nine large systems fall 3.5% from September 2025 to September 2026, following a 3.7% increase in August and a 3.6% increase in July.

New York's CitiBike records 4,959,415 trips in September 2026, down 5.8% from a year earlier, while Boston's Blue Bikes logs 551,735 trips, down 5.5%. Washington's Capital Bikeshare rises 5.0% to 503,902 trips, Chicago's Divvy increases 8.1% to 498,100, San Francisco's Bay Wheels gains 6.5% to 451,629, and Philadelphia's Indego climbs 8.4% to 182,198.

Elsewhere, Jersey City's CitiBike declines 8.0% to 106,099 trips, Pittsburgh's POGOH falls 13.1% to 83,455, and Los Angeles' Metro Bike Share drops 22.1% to 35,221. BTS says most of the nine systems post ridership increases in July and August versus 2025 levels, with Los Angeles the exception across all third-quarter months.

Consumer bicycle spending shows limited growth

The ridership figures point to uneven urban mobility demand across large metropolitan bikeshare networks, with gains concentrated in cities including Chicago, San Francisco and Philadelphia while several East Coast systems contract. New York remains by far the largest system in the dataset, meaning its decline weighs heavily on the overall national comparison for the nine networks tracked.

Separate BTS data show total U.S. expenditures on bicycles increase 0.3% in inflation-adjusted terms from August 2025 to August 2026, the latest available reading. That modest spending growth suggests consumer demand for bicycles remains broadly stable even as usage patterns differ sharply by city and operator.

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