Does street shade promote green travelling in summer? Evidence from bike-sharing in Shanghai

Urban cycling plays a vital role in public health promotion and sustainable mobility, yet high summer temperatures often discourage cycling. Street shading can mitigate heat stress and enhance outdoor thermal comfort, but its effectiveness in promoting summer cycling remains unclear. This study leverages multi-source data–including Baidu street-view imagery and bike-sharing records–and employs XGBoost combined with SHAP analysis to investigate the relationship between street shading (tree shading and building shading) and residents’ cycling behavior in Shanghai. Our results indicate that: (1) shared bicycle usage follows a ‘dense-center, sparse-periphery’ pattern, with substantial unevenness in street shading across central districts; (2) street shading can significantly increase cycling frequency, with building shading exerting a stronger effect than street-tree shading; and (3) both building and street-tree shading display nonlinear effects, markedly boosting cycling frequency once certain thresholds are exceeded, though excessive building shading produces diminishing returns. These findings suggest that strategically positioned and appropriately scaled street and building shading can improve thermal comfort, encourage active mobility, and support sustainable cycling in dense urban environments.