Abstract
What motivates a commuter to get on their bike to travel to their place of work? The literature highlights not only utilitarian elements but also the meanings and sensory experience of cycling. What about within our sample? What are in addition the motivations to take part in bike to work?
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Notes
- 1.
A principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted with SPSS on the 11 motivations with orthogonal rotation (varimax). An initial analysis was run to obtain eigenvalues for each component in the data; three components had eigenvalues over Kaiser’s criterion of 1 (2.69, 1.41 and 1.26 respectively). They explain 65% of the variance (33.5%, 17.6% and 14.1%) and their Cronbach’s Alpha ranges from .65 to .68, which can realistically be expected when dealing with psychological constructs and when there is a small number of items on the scale [3]. The variables ‘money-saving’ and ‘no other satisfactory transportation means’ are excluded as they only add a weak explanatory contribution (cut-off points for factor loading >0.5). The variable ‘transportation mode that suits me’ is set aside as there is no significant link with any of the three axes.
- 2.
Motivations can be described as extrinsic or intrinsic depending on the reasons and objectives underlying an action. An extrinsic motivation is defined as a motivation to do something based on an external constraint or objective, while an intrinsic motivation relates to the interest and pleasure that an individual finds in an action [6].
- 3.
On the basis of the z-standardised factor loadings obtained by each participant for the three factors, a hierarchical cluster analysis (Ward logarithm) was conducted in order to establish a typology. The number of groups (4) was chosen by examining the agglomeration schedule. A demarcation point was observed between 4 and 5 groups.
- 4.
Certain institutions—like the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne and the University of Lausanne – organise events such as parades at the end of bike to work in the aim of showing the importance of cycling.
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Rérat, P. (2021). Motivations. In: Cycling to Work. SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62256-5_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62256-5_8
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