Cycling Under Influence: Summarizing the Influence of Perceptions, Attitudes, Habits, and Social Environments on Cycling for Transportation

Abstract

Due to cycling’s many environmental and public health benefits, research on factors that could increase this activity has greatly expanded in recent years. Clear connections have been found between elements of the built environment and cycling for transportation. However, social and psychological factors—such as perceptions, attitudes, habits, and social environments—have recently been shown to play an important role in affecting travel behavior and mode choice. This paper reviews 24 previous studies and sets out to summarize the literature concerning the influence of these social and psychological factors on the choice to cycle for transportation. The findings highlight the importance of these factors on bicycle commuting, especially perceptions of benefits and barriers to cycling, perceptions of safety, attitudes toward cycling and other modes of transportation, habits, and the influence of family, friends, and the workplace. A consensus shows that social factors clearly affect the decision to commute by bicycle. It is therefore important to think beyond the role of physical and built-environment factors when attempting to understand or predict bicycle use. Implications for future research design and policy are presented.

Keywords::

• Behavior
• cycling
• social factors