Citation

Kamargianni M. Res. Transp. Econ. 2015; 53: 45-55.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.retrec.2015.10.018

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to develop a mode to school choice model to quantitatively evaluate the impact of various bicycle services and facilities on adolescents' mode choice behaviour. Stated preference (SP) scenarios specifically designed for this survey were used to elicit preferences for bicycle facilities and infrastructure, such as bike-lanes and bicycle parking places, and also for the availability of safety courses for school goers. The estimated mode choice model, which explicitly considers taste heterogeneity and panel effects, was tested with data collected in different types of cities (urban, rural and insular) of two different countries Greece and Cyprus, enabling comparisons in adolescents' travel behaviour across different geographical areas. The sample consisted of 9554 adolescent who yielded 20,432 SP responses for model estimation. Our results show that the prevalent factors affecting bicycle choice differ across different types of cities. Bad weather conditions affect the most the choice of bicycle in urban areas, while the most significant variable for rural areas is the percentage of cycleway coverage in the route between home and school. The availability of bicycle parking spaces at the schoolyard and the availability of school courses regarding how to walk and cycle with safety, also increased the bicycle utility in all five areas considered. Finally, three policy scenarios were tested to investigate modal split under various cycling policies. (C) 2015 Elsevier Publications.

Language: en