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Data Analysis for Cyclistic 

 

A Google Coursera Data Analytics Capstone Project

Adam Hauptfeld, PhD

  1. The Business Task 

  2. Data Source

  3. Cleaning and Manipulation

  4. Analysis

  5. Key Findings and Recommendations

  6. Lessons Learned

05

Key Findings

Here I will summarize the most important insights gathered during my analysis and present my top three recommendations for our team.

Inverse Weekday Trends

Annual members and casual riders have inverse weekday trendlines. Annual members have a ∩-shaped weekday trendline, and casual riders have a U-shaped weekday trendline. This means that casual riders take a disproportionate percentage of their trips on weekends while annual members take a disproportionate percentage of their trips during the week.

Cyclistic_weekdays_by_usertype.png
Seasonal Trends

The summer and early fall months are the most popular months for annual members and by far the most popular months for casual riders. In the winter months, casual riders nearly disappear.

Time-of-Day Trends

Casual rides occur consistently during the midday and evening, while annual member ride counts spike significantly in the morning and evening. Unfortunately, this suggests there are very few morning commuters who aren't already annual members.

Cyclistic_timeofday_by_usertype.png
Station Trends

Some stations are much more popular with casual riders than other stations, and many of these stations also see significant use by annual members.

Cyclistic_top_stations_percentage_of_casual_trips.png
Gender Trends

While men take a majority of all trips, they take an even larger majority of annual member trips than casual trips.

user type gender breakdown.png

Top Three Recommendations

1. Target casual riders on the weekdays.

The casual riders who are most likely to become annual members are those who already use Cyclistic bikes the way annual members do.​ While casual riders take a disproportionate number of their trips on the weekend, these trips are more likely to be taken by tourists and joy riders than members-in-waiting. Advertising on weekdays, which still account for 57% of casual trips, will find the right audience.

2. Target casual riders during the warm months.

Casual riders take the vast majority of their trips between May and October, and peak in both absolute trips and as a ratio to member trips in July and August. In contrast, casual trips are nearly non-existent between November and April.

3. Advertise at the most popular stations.

When advertising budgets are limited, they must be used efficiently. 35.3% of all trips start at the twenty most popular stations. Streeter Dr. & Grand Ave. station (6% of all trip starts) and Lake Shore Dr. & Monroe St. station (4.5% of all trip starts) are the two most popular stations by a significant margin, with no other station starting over 3% of rides and only four other stations starting over 2%.​

It is also important to advertise at stations frequented by both casual riders and annual members. Michigan Ave. & Pearson St. station and Lake Shore Dr. & Ohio St. station are popular stations that see nearly equal numbers of casual riders and members.

​​Go To Lessons Learned.

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