The influence of the route environment on the route choice of bicyclists: A preliminary study

Abstract

As bicycling as a mode of transport for everyday mobility gains increasing interest from both the public and from policy makers in Germany (Abt. 3 Verkehrsplanung, Referat für Stadt- planung und Bauordnung, Landeshauptstadt München, 2015) (Senatsverwaltung für Umwelt, Verkehr und Klimaschutz, n.d.) (Tomik, 2018), the need to include bicycling in the transport models that support policy evaluation procedures becomes pressing. This study used an online stated preference survey and discrete choice modelling to investigate the effects of route environment attributes on bicyclists’ route choice in Berlin, Germany. Included among the attributes were two urban design characteristics, complexity and streetscape design. Both multinomial logit models with interaction parameters and mixed logit models with random coefficients were estimated. The results of these models show that both urban design characteristics have a significant effect on the route choice of bicyclists. The results also confirmed many hypotheses concerting the effects of route environment attributes, including several related to pavement types, motorized traffic volumes, and bicycle type used by the bicyclist. The results are also suitable to use as input for traffic modelling programs such as MATSim (Horni, Nagel, & Axhausen, 2016).