As was promised quite a ways back, I have finally gone through the results of the Route 100 survey that address motivations and deterrents for riding a bicycle. In this blogpost, I present the results of the questions regarding motivation and my next post will address what it is that deters our survey respondents from riding a bicycle.
Of course, these results are specific to the population of respondents to the survey on Route 100…the responses given by the 172 individuals who answered the survey my research partner and I deployed may provide insight to further explorations of motivations for riding a bicycle and selecting to commute with this mode of transportation.
Motivations
Motivations for riding a bicycle and using Route 100 have an assumed connection to how users perceive the mode of transportation. In order to analyze how what drives ‘people’ to use their bicycle, the survey investigated the motivations for riding a bicycle in general and what specifically motivates respondents to use Route 100 itself. Respondents were granted the ability to select multiple motivations listed in the survey as well as write-in additional reasons they select to ride a bicycle or use the route.Motivations for Bicycling
The most common impetus for riding a bicycle in general is the benefit to personal health that bicycling provides, with 83.14% of respondents indicating this motivation in the survey. Unlike driving a car or riding a bus, using a bicycle as a means of transportation insists that the rider experiences free exercise while traveling. The second most prevalent motivation, with 78.49% of respondents for bicycling is the convenience it provides. Another 63.37% of individuals responded that the enjoyment they received from riding a bicycle was a motivation for selecting to ride. Current users riding the entire length of the route or only one segment also listed these as their top three reasons for choosing this mode of transportation. Enjoyment is the strongest motivator for riders of all of Route 100 and the second strongest for riders of one portion of the route, respectively accounting for 35.78% and 28.44% of respondents selecting this as motivator. Only former regular users stated that convenience is their most important motivator, comprising 28.15% of respondents indicating this response.Just over a third of respondents, 34.88%, express that they choose to ride a bicycle because it is good for the environment. Slightly fewer respondents are motivated to ride a bicycle when there are well-maintained facilities provide for bicycle transportation and safe spaces for bicyclists to ride, accounting for 26.16% and 22.09% of responses respectively. Safety is most important to regular riders of the entire route, with 39.7% of those indicating safe situations as a motivation being in this group. Maintenance on the other hand, is the most valuable to former users of Route 100, who comprise for 37.78% of individuals selecting this option. Linked to these two motivations, the presence of pavement markings for bicyclists was reported as a motivation by 154.53% of survey respondents. At the very bottom of the list of motivations, accounting for 5.81% of respondents, was the option to state that nothing acts as a motivator for riding a bicycle.
One important motivator inadvertently left off of the list of motivations in the survey was the low cost of riding a bicycle. In the write-in section of the survey, 16.86% of respondents stated that riding a bicycle is “cheap” or that it “saves money”. The largest proportion of respondents expressing that cost is what motivates them to ride a bicycle are those who are regular riders of the entire length of Route 100, accounting for 34.28% of this write-in motivation. Another 31.03% of respondents writing-in this motivation are former riders of Route 100 and 24.14% currently ride one portion of the route.
The oversight of not including affordability in the survey means that the results of the survey cannot indicate how much of motivator the cost of bicycling compares to health, convenience, and other motivators that were included. The second most common reason that was written-in by 7.56% of respondents is that bicycling is their preferred mode of transportation. Another 2.33% of respondents indicated that they select to ride a bicycle because it is either the fasted or the most flexible mode of transportation. Favorable weather conditions was written-in by 1.16% of respondents, with the very small population of respondents, 0.58%, stating that their bicycle is the only mode of transportation that they have access to.
Motivations for Riding Route 100
To further the investigation of motivations, the survey focused in on Route 100 and inquired why users choose to ride this particular bicycle route. Just with responses to the more general question on motivations for riding a bicycle, the presence of well-maintained facilities and safe situations for bicycling act as nearly equal motivators for using Route 100, accounting for 27.3% and 25.58% of responses respectively. As with general motivations for riding a bicycle, those riding the entire length of Route 100, find that safety is the more important of the two motivators, with this group accounting for 40.91% of individuals selecting this response. Unlike the general motivations, however, it is the regular rider of the whole route which finds well maintained facilities most important, with a total of 36.26% of those choosing good maintenance as a motivator being in this group of respondents.The presence of pavement markings indicating where bicyclists should use the roadway is the third most frequently selected motivator for using Route 100, with 19.19% of respondents selecting this possible response. Those respondents who ride all or part of the route as well as those who formally use Route 100 have a generally equal outlook on the importance of pavement markings.
Unlike the general question on reasons for using a bicycle as a mode of transportation, having no motivation was not the least common response. A total of 13.37% of respondents stated that nothing motivates them to use Route 100, but only 12.79% indicated that the wayfinding along the route is a motivator. That wayfinding is considered the least important of the motivators included in the survey is further reflected upon in the expanded discussion of Route 100 initiatives.
As with the motivations for riding a bicycle in general, respondents also provided extra insight beyond into motivations for using Route 100 beyond the options listed in the survey. A total of 12.79% of responses indicated that they choose to use Route 100 because a bicycle is the only mode of transportation they have access to—which can be tied to the write-in answer regarding the affordability of riding a bicycle. Another 9.3% of respondents explained that Route 100 provides the best route for their trip. This response reflects well on the planning of the route, as it indicates that Aalborg Municipality successfully aligned the commuter route to provide access to Aalborg University.
The third most common write-in response for selecting to use Route 100, accounting for 1.74% of responses, is the priority provide to bicyclists along the route. The of the topography along Route 100 was described as a motivator by 1.16% of respondents, which is exhibited as an interesting response in the analysis of deterrents to riding a bicycle in general and along Route 100. Of all the write-in responses, the least common statement is that bicycling is the preferred mode of transportation, with 0.58% of respondents submitting this response.
As may be clear, the possible response for motivations for bicycling in general differ slightly from those specific to the use of Route 100. This research project assumes that all general motivations are also applicable to the motivations for using Route 100 specifically. Considering this, the analysis assumes that health, convenience and enjoyment are stronger motivators for bicycling than any of the response specific to Route 100, as these options were more frequently selected than any options regarding explicitly related to Route 100.
One unfortunate outcome from this section of the survey is that non-users and future Route 100 users did not report many motivations for riding a bicycle. For non-users, convenience is the most important motivator for riding in general and for selecting to user Route 100. Those individuals who plan to use Route 100 in the future rank convenience at the same level as nothing at all acting as a motivation, but these responses together only account for 1.16% of all responses. A care for the environment is the most important factor for future riders who plan to use Route100, yet these responses also only account for 1.16% of all responses for motivations. That more was not learned about these groups of users means this research cannot well pinpoint what could be done to increase bicycle ridership among these groups of ‘people’.
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