Exploring Users’ perceptions of factors influencing cycling route choice: A perspective from Quelimane, Mozambique

ABSTRACT

Cyclists are more sensitive to weather conditions and the surrounding environment than other road users, so cycling route choice is influenced by the departure time and built-environment characteristics. Drawn from empirical data collected from 898 cycling commuters in Quelimane, Mozambique, this study examines how three cycling segments, Demanding cyclists (DC), Cautious cyclists (CC) and Forced cyclists (FC), perceive various cycling route choice factors. The Kruskal–Wallis test is used for analysis, and the results show that FC departing in cool-hours and CC departing in hot-hours and in the transition between cool/hot-hours perceive traffic speed as an important cycling route choice factor. For the built-environment, for those cycling within the inner-city, FC and CC cite lack of tree cover as an influential route choice factor. CC who cycle in the city-periphery perceive traffic speed as important. DC and CC who cycle frequently between the inner-city/city-periphery perceive cycling distance as a strong factor.

KEYWORDS:

• Cycling
• route choice
• market segments
• departure time
• built environment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ministry of Science and Technology, Higher and Technical Vocational Education of the Republic of Mozambique: [Grant Number IBE 29/2016].