Multimodal Travel Choices of Bicyclists

Abstract

Cycling demand has been growing in recent years in Germany. Today, during an average week, about 30% of the German population, including all age classes and rural as well as urban populations, use the bicycle as a means of transportation. Cyclists use their bicycles on average 3 days per week for about 30% of their trips. The bicycle, however, is a mode used for specific segments of everyday travel, particularly short distances, unlike the car, which is almost universal. Hence, cyclists exhibit multimodal travel behavior (i.e., they combine the bicycle with other modes and switch to public transport or the car when the bicycle is not suitable). The domain of the bicycle as a means of transport is a radius around home that on average is about 3 to 5 km, dependent on the urban form. Within this radius, the car with its flexibility is the only serious competitor to nonmotorized modes. For the neighborhood-oriented travel of cyclists, public transport performs well only in specific niches, such as travel at night or commuting to school or university. Here, public transport and the bicycle are competitors. Nevertheless, from a system perspective they are allies: each provides important components for a multimodal mobility tool kit that enables travelers to cultivate mobility that is less automobile oriented.

Analysing the trip and user characteristics of the combined bicycle and transit mode

“…Those who do not own a car or do not have access to one are called captive travellers as they are forced to use other modes. Krygsman et al (2004) find that 80% of multimodal transport users, who are a very relevant group for the bicycle + transit mode, do not own a personal car and Kuhnimhof et al (2010) have similar findings regarding car owners' bicycle use within the radius of nonmotorized travel. In the multimodal bicycle travellers cluster of Molin et al (2016) 38% never have access to a car while 26% have some difficulty in arranging for a car and similar traveller clusters in Nobis (2007) and Anable (2005) are also characterised by low car availability.…”

“…Among the socio-demographic variables, those related to transportation characteristics have been found to be the most important in the decision to use multimodal travel such as the combined bicycle and transit mode (Krygsman et al, 2004;Kuhnimhof et al, 2010). These include attributes such as number of cars in the household, possession of license, public transport usage, possession of a public transport card, etc.…”

Insights into factors affecting the combined bicycle-transit mode

“…Clearly, when both the levels of cycling and rail use are high, the absolute number of bicycle-rail users increases (Kuhnimhof et al 2010;Martens 2007). This logical reasoning is integrated in various bicycle-rail demand modelling studies (Ensor and Slason 2011;Geurs et al 2016;Krizek and Stonebraker 2010).…”

Biking to Ride: Investigating the Challenges and Barriers of Integrating Cycling with Regional Rail Transit

“…In recent years, the bicycle has received increasing attention from planners, decision makers, and researchers ( 1 ). Owing to the bicycle’s associated efficiency, environmental, and health benefits, it is promoted as a potential key transport mode in producing sustainable urban mobility ( 2 ). Transportation research tends to focus on single transport modes independent of others.…”