Abstract
Cargo bikes—bicycles made to carry both goods and people—are becoming increasingly common as an alternative to automobiles in urban areas. With a wider and heavier body, cargo bikes often face problems even in the presence of cycling infrastructure, thus limiting their possibilities of route choice. Infrastructure quality and the route choices of cyclists have been well studied, but often solely based on a quantitative approach, leading to tools such as BLOS (bicycle level of service). With various designs of cargo bikes being used for a wide range of purposes, the route choice of cargo bike users is difficult to generalize. This study combines quantitative and qualitative approaches in order to explore what is important for cargo bike users’ route choice, and how this knowledge can be effectively used for planning. Our results suggest that while some general preferences exist, route choice involves complex dynamics that cannot be fully explained by quantitative measures alone: in addition to understanding “what” is important for cargo bike users, we need to understand “why” it is important. Furthermore, route choice is also influenced by the city context, making a study tailored to the local context essential.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 941-965 |
Number of pages | 25 |
Journal | American Journal of Economics and Sociology |
Volume | 79 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 May 2020 |
Funding
Special thanks to Professor Luca Bertolini for his critical eye in reading earlier drafts of this article. The authors appreciate the help of those who helped with distribution of the survey: Ronin in Stockholm, and Dr. Byke, Urban Arrow, Henry (WorkCycles), and Fietsersbond in Amsterdam. This work is part of the VerDuS program Smart Urban Regions of the Future with project number 438-15-160, which is (co)financed by the Dutch Research Council.
Funders | Funder number |
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Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek |