Bicyclists’ preferences for route characteristics and crowding in Copenhagen – A choice experiment study of commuters

doi:10.1016/j.tra.2017.04.006

Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice

Volume 100, June 2017, Pages 53-64

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2017.04.006 Get rights and content

Abstract

Cycling as a mode of transportation is increasingly being advocated due to the many positive effects it has on people’s health, the environment and to counteract increasing congestion on the transportation infrastructure. There is a long tradition of using cycling as a mode of transportation among the Danish public and this is widespread across people with different socio-demographic characteristics. Copenhagen has an extensive network of cycling facilities and is often used as a role model for other large cities when developing cycling facilities. This setting provides a unique basis for investigating bicycle commuters’ preferences for route characteristics and crowding in particular, which is not studied before, but likely to become an issue around the world’s cities with increases in number of bicyclists. The study is based on a choice experiment of 3891 active cyclists in Copenhagen. The investigated attributes are cycle track, crowding, stops, environment/road type, green surroundings, and travel distance which is used as a payment vehicle to gain more desirable route characteristics.

On average people state that they are willing to cycle 1.84 km longer if the route has a designated cycle track, and 0.8 km more if there are green surroundings too. Stops and crowding, based on number of cyclists on the route, have significant negative impacts on people’s utility of a given route. People were willing to cycle one kilometre longer to avoid high levels of crowding and approximately 1.3 km longer to avoid routes with many stops. The most attractive road environment is a segregated path only for cyclists closely followed by shopping street. Looking into heterogeneity, we find that people who own a car have less disutility of cycling additional distance. The results may support future decision making when creating new infrastructure for cycling in cities by addressing the perceived importance of facilities and crowding in a population where commute cycling is very widespread.

Introduction

Cycling is increasingly being promoted as a mode of transportation due to environmental concerns, health benefits, and to reduce congestion on the transportation infrastructure, especially in many large cities. One important task to reach a higher mode share of cycling is to create better infrastructure for cyclists (European Commission, 2011, Krizek et al., 2009, Forsyth and Krizek, 2009). Denmark has a long history of using bicycles for commuting, and Copenhagen is often used as a role model for other large cities across the world, when searching for ways to promote commuting by bicycle and developing sustainable infrastructure of cities (Gössling, 2013, Pucher and Buehler, 2008, Municipality of Copenhagen, 2013).

We investigate the implicit value commuters attach to specific route characteristics and road environments based on the travel distance they are willing to cycle to achieve a more desirable route. Data was gathered from 3891 cyclists in the area of Copenhagen, Denmark, through a web based survey including a stated choice experiment (CE). The facilities included here are presence of cycling track, crowding (with other cyclists), stops, road environment/road type, green surroundings and travel distance. The survey also collected information on travel behaviour, satisfaction with current facilities and socio-demographic information of the respondents in order to investigate potential systematic variation in preferences. An empirical model is constructed using independent socio-demographic and behavioural variables allowing us to assess the added distance people are willing to cycle to achieve or avoid different route characteristics.

In a comprehensive review of studies focusing on increasing the share of cyclists, Pucher et al. (2010) found that success requires an integrated approach consisting of many different types of interventions, among these it is of great importance to provide infrastructural changes which support commute cycling. This study adds knowledge on how to improve and target infrastructural changes based on what is important for cyclists.

Although Denmark has a strong culture for commute cycling, there is still much national focus on possible improvements of the urban infrastructure for cyclists. Commuters choose their routes from the feasible set of alternatives present today. Previous studies have emphasized the gap between routes that are desirable for cyclists and currently available routes (Winters and Teschke (2010). Therefore a stated preference study is applied since it allows us to investigate the importance of route characteristics of which all are not necessarily available to the specific respondent today. Furthermore, the chosen approach allows us to investigate preferences in a setting where respondents are asked to focus only on the selected parameters. Thereby results are less likely to be affected by unobserved multisensory aspects which are difficult to control for city planners.

Sampling active bicyclists, in a city with a large bicyclist mode share, we are investigating a very experienced group of people with a likely well-defined set of preferences.¹ This provides valuable insights for urban planning and the design of infrastructure for cyclists in the future, not only in Denmark but also in other locations where, for example, crowding among cyclists is yet to become an issue. Consequently, the paper adds to this research gab also identified by Buehler and Dill, 2016).

Section snippets

Background and theory

The long historical perspective of using bicycles for commuting in Denmark provides a unique opportunity for studying commuters’ route preferences in a ‘nation of cyclists’ where commute cycling is widespread across all socio-economics groups and people are likely to have well-known preferences for route facilities and characteristics. The municipality of Copenhagen – with a population of 594,000 (2016) covering 77.2 km² – is a city with a high mode share of bicycles; 35% of trips are made on

Data collection and survey design

Data was collected in April and May 2011 among cyclists in the city of Copenhagen³ by distribution of flyers on the cycling tracks when bicyclists were stopping for a red light. The flyers included brief information about the survey and a link to a website, where a questionnaire could be filled out online. Approximately 30.000 flyers were distributed to cyclists between 7 and 19 o’clock on weekdays at 17 different locations in Copenhagen, including

Representativeness

Table 2 shows the socio-demographic distribution of the respondents and the sample is compared to the population in the municipality of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg and the active bicycle population of Copenhagen according to a survey carried out by the municipality. There is an overrepresentation of people with a higher education (defined as more than four years e.g. university degree or similar) compared to the bicyclists of Copenhagen. 78% of the respondents have stated that they use the

Results of the choice experiment

The results of a random parameter logit model with socio-economic and behavioural interactions as given in equation 1 are shown in Table 3. The model has an adjusted R² of 0.50 and is based on 23,159 choice sets. The opt-out was chosen in 146 choice sets.

The two levels for presence of cycling track (with either line or curb) are merged into one since the parameters for the two levels were not significantly different. This was not surprising given the focus group results. All main parameters

Crowding

Seen in an international context, the city of Copenhagen has been a front runner when it comes to creating facilities for cyclists. That makes it an interesting setting for studying commuters’ preferences and in particular emerging issues such as crowding which has yet to become a problem in other large cities where a higher cycling frequency is anticipated in the future. Similar to the literature on public transportation, where not accounting for crowding effects could lead to overestimation

Conclusion

Using bicycles for commuting has a long and widespread tradition in Denmark. In the present sample of 3891 active cyclists, more than 78% of the respondents use their bicycle for commuting at least 4 days a week. This forms a solid basis for studying commuting cyclists’ preferences for route characteristics with the scope of informing urban planners and future infrastructural design. By using added travel distance as the ‘price’ people have to pay to achieve or avoid certain route

Acknowledgement

The Bikeability project is supported by the Danish Council of Strategic Research (ref: DSF/09-067197). The authors are thankful for the sketches used in the choice experiment which were created by Richard Hare, University of Copenhagen.

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Bicyclists’ preferences for route characteristics and crowding in Copenhagen – A choice experiment study of commuters

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Background and theory

Data collection and survey design

Representativeness

Results of the choice experiment

Crowding

Conclusion

Acknowledgement

Transp. Res. Part B: Methodol.

Transp. Res. Part A: Policy Pract.

Transp. Rev.

J. Public Econ.

Transp. Res. Part D: Transp. Environ.

J. Transp. Geogr.

Transp. Res. Part A: Policy Pract.

Transp. Res. Part A: Policy Pract.

Transp. Res. Part A: Policy Pract.

Does more cycling mean more diversity in cycling?

Transp. Rev.

Route Choice Analyzed With Stated Preference Approaches

International overview: cycling trends in Western Europe North America and Australia

Urban design: is there a distinctive view from the bicycle?

J. Urban Des.