Abstract:The environmental, economic, and health benefits of bicycling provide motivation for policy 3 makers to promote bicycling as a means of transportation. Research has linked socio-4 demographic factors, individual attitudes, and characteristics of the social and physical 5 environments to the decision to bicycle. The purpose of this study is to identify and estimate the 6 effects of individual and socio-demographic factors in university employees’ decisions to bicycle 7 to work in the context of a bicycle-friendly community with historically high bicycling rates. 8 Results of binary logistic regression using data from an annual campus travel survey at the 9 University of California at Davis indicate that among university employees, individual attitudes 10 and preferences are key determinants of bicycling, whereas socio-demographic factors such as 11 age, income, and gender were not found to have direct effects on bicycling. Since many studies 12 have found gender to significantly influence bicycling behavior, gender-specific models were 13 developed, and several significant interaction effects were identified in the final model. Having a 14 graduate degree and rating parking costs as important were found to have positive effects on 15 bicycling among females, whereas rating travel costs as important was found to have positive 16 effects among males. For both genders, bicycling comfort and liking biking increase the 17 likelihood of commuting by bicycle, while general need for a car, need for a vehicle for work 18 activities, liking driving, and rating travel convenience as important were found to decrease the 19 likelihood of bicycling.

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Suggested citation: Miller, Joshua, Susan L. Handy (2012) Factors Influencing Bicycle Commuting by University Employees. Presented at the 91st Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, January 22-26, 2012, Washington, D.C.