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What’s your type: a multidimensional cyclist typology

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Abstract

Increasing bicycle use for utilitarian trips is a common city objective for health and environmental improvement and congestion reduction, but cyclists react heterogeneously to interventions and infrastructure. Understanding cyclist types helps in comprehending and planning for this diverse population. This study uses data from 2004 surveyed Montreal cyclists to generate a multidimensional cyclist typology based on seven factors derived from 35 variables, mostly proven determinants of the intensity of bicycle usage. The analysis revealed four distinct cyclist types: dedicated cyclists, path-using cyclists, fairweather utilitarians, and leisure cyclists. The cycling frequencies of each group respond differently to potential interventions and vary within commuting rate ranges with apparent minima and maxima. Building a network adapted to different cyclist types and emphasizing its convenience, flexibility and speed, could be an effective strategy to increase cycling mode share and frequency among the various groups. Findings from this study can be of benefit to transportation engineers, planners and policy makers as they help in better understanding the impacts of various interventions on the different groups of cyclists.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded through National Sciences in Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery program. The authors would like to thank Daniel Schwartz for helping with survey-related technical issues, and Évelyne St-Louis for survey translation. We are also grateful to the Coalition Vélo Montréal for input on Montreal bicycle issues and all to the Montreal cyclists who filled out the survey and wrote insightful and sometimes extensive comments. Thanks to Mr. Daniel Bergeron from Agence Métropolitaine de Transport for providing the OD-surevy data used in the comparisons. Thanks to Kevin Manaugh and Dea van Lierop as well as all the Transportation Research at McGill (TRAM) research group members for their support during survey preparation and data collection and their useful analysis insights. Last but not least we would like to that the four anonymous reviewers for their great feedback on the earlier versions of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Urban Planning, McGill University, Suite 400, 815 Sherbrooke St. W., Montreal, Québec, H3A 2K6, Canada

    Gabriel Damant-Sirois

  2. Transportation Research at McGill, McGill University, Suite 400, 815 Sherbrooke St. W., Montreal, Québec, H3A 2K6, Canada

    Michael Grimsrud

  3. School of Urban Planning, McGill University, Suite 400, 815 Sherbrooke St. W., Montreal, Québec, H3A 2K6, Canada

    Ahmed M. El-Geneidy

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  1. Gabriel Damant-Sirois
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  2. Michael Grimsrud
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  3. Ahmed M. El-Geneidy
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Correspondence to Ahmed M. El-Geneidy.

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Damant-Sirois, G., Grimsrud, M. & El-Geneidy, A.M. What’s your type: a multidimensional cyclist typology. Transportation 41, 1153–1169 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-014-9523-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-014-9523-8

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