Four Types of Cyclist in Christchurch? A study to determine cyclist user types and their infrastructure preferences

Abstract

Roger Geller proposed four types of cyclist when planning Portland’s bike network, from ”Strong and Fearless” through ”Enthused and Confident” and ”Interested but Concerned” to ”No Way, No How”. The aim of this project was to find out whether Geller’s Four Types of Cyclists exist in a New Zealand urban population and how new infrastructure could be targeted to their needs to encourage cycling. Questions were devised to identify the respondents’ current travel behaviour, their attitudes to cycling and their preferences for cycling infrastructure. The results show that there is a substantial proportion of respondents who identified themselves with Geller’s Four Types (83%). The ”Interested but Concerned” (IBC) group made up 32% of respondents. The results were further refined to remove existing sustainable mode users from the responses and found that 51% of drivers or passengers were in the IBC group, an encouraging sign that there is opportunity for change within that group. Safety was identified as the barrier to mode change by the IBC group; separation from motor vehicles was a major influence on whether people would feel safe cycling. Other comments received suggested that driver behaviour, user confidence, route consistency and less traffic were also influencing potential cycle use.

Full text

FOUR TYPES OF CYCLIST
IN CHRISTCHURCH?
A study to determine cyclist user types and their
infrastructure preferences in Christchurch, NZ
(University of Canterbury MET research project)
Dr Glen Koorey, ViaStrada Ltd
& Karyn Teather, Christchurch City Council

•Project Overview
•Study Methodology
•Results and Analysis
•Discussion and Conclusion
•Further Research
Presentation Outline

Project Overview
Catalyst
•More funding available in Christchurch to implement better cycle
facilities, to increase cycling numbers
•Need to better understand the types of facilities that would attract
new cyclists
•As opposed to what might work fine for existing riders
Aim
•To understand the types of existing and potential cyclists that live in
Christchurch and how they might be attracted to taking up cycling
by implementing new infrastructure to address their concerns

S&F <1% E&C 7% IBC 60% NWNH 33%
Roger Geller's Cycling Typology (2006)
Identified four Types of Cyclists to help predict potential cyclists:
•Strong and Fearless (S&F): will ride “regardless of roadway conditions”
•Enthused and Confident (E&C): comfortable riding on a road with motor
vehicles, but appreciate efforts made to improve cycling infrastructure
•Interested but Concerned (IBC): keen to try cycling, but are apprehensive
about how safe they will be when travelling with or beside motor vehicles
•No Way No How (NWNH): not going to ride a bicycle, “for reasons of
topography, inability, or simply a complete and utter lack of interest”

Developing the Methodology
•Dill and McNeil (2012) undertook a random phone survey of
Portland (OR) residents to:
• Validate Geller’s Four Types of Cyclists
•Understand who falls into each type
•Use the typology to explore what might increase levels of cycling for
transportation
•Typology and target groups were used to confirm the usefulness of
using the categories to plan investment in infrastructure
This approach formed the basis for the Christchurch survey

Dill & McNeil (2012)

Developing the Methodology cont'd
Dill and McNeil (2012) found that:
•Majority (60%) of the respondents fit in the IBC category
(c.f. S&F 6%, E&C 9%, and NWNH 25%)
•Thought to be the key target market for increasing cycling for transportation
•The level of interest in cycling more is not necessarily consistent
with current cycling behaviour
•Cycle infrastructure that increases physical separation from motor
vehicles increases the IBC group’s level of comfort significantly

Christchurch Survey Questionnaire
•Developed to find out
• Whether Geller’s Four Types of Cyclists exist in the Chch community
•How new infrastructure could be targeted to their needs to encourage them
to take up cycling
• Questions devised to identify the respondents’
•Current travel behaviour
•Attitudes to cycling
•Preferences for cycling infrastructure
•Distributed as an online survey (Qualtrics)
•1359 participants completed the survey in late 2014

Christchurch Survey Questionnaire cont'd
Questions:
•Travel Preferences –travel to work, distance, access to a bicycle, cycle for
any purpose (incl. recreation) and how often, considered cycling to work/study,
cycle user group and what would encourage them to cycle (list was provided)
•General Street Treatments –what degree of separation from motor vehicles
on links would make them feel comfortable
•Intersection Treatments –what degree of separation from motor vehicles at
intersections that would make them feel comfortable
•Children on Bikes – did respondents’ children currently cycle to school, what
might encourage them to cycle
•Demographics –gender and age group

Results

Results cont'd
•Results show that there is a substantial proportion of respondents
who identified themselves with Geller’s Four Types of Cyclists
(82%)
•The IBC group made up 32% of respondents
•Smaller than reported by Dill and McNeil
•Probably reflecting bias response of survey (more S&F / E&C)
•Results further refined to remove existing sustainable mode users
from the responses
•Found that 51% of remaining drivers or passengers were in the IBC group

Results cont'd
•Safety was identified as the key barrier to mode change by the IBC
group
•Separation from motor vehicles was a major influence on whether people
would feel safe cycling
•Other comments influencing potential cycle use:
•
Driver behaviour
•
User confidence
•
Route consistency
•
Less traffic
•
Access to locker/shower facilities at work
•
Integration with other modes
•
Improvement in the number of road work
sites

Conclusions
•Safety remained the most inhibiting factor to encouraging cycle use
•Creating a safe network is the most important influencing factor to
encourage new cyclists
•Other factors:
•driver behaviour
•user confidence
•route consistency
•less traffic

Conclusions cont'd
•Significant effort should be made in creating
as much separation as possible to increase
bicycle mode share
•A consistent and connected network is a
key part of cycle network planning
•The whole cycling network should integrate
to make connections legible for new users

Future Work
•Further research is required to ensure that the responses are
truly representative of potential users
•Post-implementation monitoring should be undertaken when
new cycleways are constructed and operating
•In order to ensure that the design has been executed appropriately
and that cyclists are comfortable using the facilities

Thank You!
Any Questions?
glen@viastrada.nz
Karyn.Teather@ccc.govt.nz