"The Impact of Bike Share Stations on Crime" 

(with James Schulte)

Abstract:  Transportation stations impact local crime by changing the incentives for criminal activity. Most studies on the link between crime and transit stations focus on public transportation, however, there is limited evidence for other transportation alternatives, like micromobility. Using a spatial difference-in-differences research design, we provide evidence that bike share docking stations cause a significant increase in crime within 25 meters by leveraging data on Citi Bike and reported crime in New York City. Our results are robust across various estimators and counterfactuals, and we find heterogeneous effects depending on the type of crime and the time of day a crime was reported to have occurred. These findings provide insights into the external costs of micromobility, offering policymakers further information when considering its adoption as a transportation alternative.