Examining the influence of urban design on cyclist route choice in different weather conditions

Examining the influence of urban design on cyclist route choice in different weather conditions

van der Wal, Erik (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)

Maat, Kees (mentor)
Meijers, Martijn (graduation committee)
van der Spek, Stefan (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Geomatics

2020-01-24

With regard to climate change and air pollution within cities, interest in sustainable modes of transportation for regular use has taken a rise. Utilitarian cycling is being seen as a frontrunner for replacing everyday motorized travels within and between cities, supported by the rapid emergence of the electric bicycle. Governments are trying to use the increasing opportunities involving bicycle transportation to reduce car traffic and the related air polution, by stimulating the use of bicycles. In this light, interest is drawn to cyclist travel behavior to uncover preferences of cyclists. Existing literature shows a significant impact of weather conditions on cyclist travel behavior in terms of tranportation mode choices. Especially adverse weather condtions leave their mark on the use of bicycles as a means of transportation, as it is recognized by many studies as a main deterrent for cycling. On the other hand, the relation between weather conditions and cyclist route choice is an underexplored topic in existing literature. Consequently, it has remained unclear to what extent cyclists attempt to mitigate the influence of weather condtions through choice of route, and based on which determinants. Insights in ways to mitigate unchangeable external circumstances like weather conditions could be another step forward in stimulating utilitarian use of bicycles in the search for transportation modes that can replace motorized trips. This thesis made an attempt to partially address the research gap in existing literature, by departing from findings in the field of pedestrian mobility. In these studies, pedestrians have been found to adapt their choice of route to the degree of shelter that is offered by the built environment as a measure to change level of weather exposure. These findings were projected on cyclist route choice, to evaluate to what extent cyclist alter their choice of route based on weather conditions and the degree of shelter that can be found within a built environment. An elaborate methodology was proposed in which observed routes throughout the study area of Tilburg (the Netherlands), comprising trips made with conventional and electric bicycles, were compared with shortest and fastest alternatives. The weather conditions under which a route was conducted were modelled through a set of individual meteorological factors, spatially related to the location of an observed route. To operationalize the degree of shelter provided by the built environment, a new method was developed using aspects from existing theories on street climate design and spatial openness in order to provide a detailed description of the potential shelter along a route. Three different shelter factors were established, describing the degree of mean building shelter, maximum building shelter, and vegetational shelter in the form of tree density along a route. Through estimation of a set of linear regression models, independent and combined effects of the meteorological and shelter factors on cyclist route choice were modelled. Initial moderate influences of windspeed, temperature, and cycling under twilight conditions on the choice of route were found, while cyclists generally chose routes with a lower degree of building and vegetational shelter compared to alternative shortest and fastest routes. Interactions between the effects of meteorological and shelter factors showed very limited additional effects, suggesting that utilitarian cyclists in the study area did not value the degree of built environment shelter along a route sufficiently as a mitigator of weather conditions to diverge from the shortest or fastest route. These findings imply that built environment shelter does not have to be accounted for in policy design to stimulate utilitarian cycling.

Cyclist route choice
Shelter
Weather exposure
Movement data
Built environment

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:637abf2b-61ec-4c9d-a9af-8d2f200d09ee

Student theses

master thesis

© 2020 Erik van der Wal