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Do bicycling experiences and exposure influence bicycling skills and attitudes? Evidence from a bicycle-friendly university

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  • Thigpen, Calvin

Abstract

Life changes are often associated with changes in travel behavior, due to a break in habitual travel cues and the introduction of a novel travel context. Universities provide a particularly appropriate setting to examine how these life changes can bring about changes in travel attitudes, 27 norms, and skills – which together form a psychological construct called “motility” that describes the capability for travel. In this study, I pool data from seven years of the University of California, Davis’ annual campus travel survey to create a longitudinal panel, and use a retrospective survey to collect the bicycling behaviors, attitudes, and skills of undergraduates every year since they graduated from high school. I find that, on average, UCD undergraduates’ pro-bicycling attitudes decrease slightly over time while bicycling skills increase substantially throughout college. I then use the retrospective panel data to estimate a statistical model to analyze the influence of bicycling exposure and experiences on skills and attitudes. I find that riding a bicycle at any point during college increases both pro-bicycling attitudes and bicycling skills, while exposure to high levels of bicycling appears not to influence attitudes or skills. This study provides confirmatory evidence for the motility approach and suggests possible policy avenues, such as incentivizing short-term bicycle use in order to shift perceptions and attitudes about bicycling, with the intent of fostering a positive feedback cycle between greater bicycling attitudes and skills and increased bicycle use.

Suggested Citation

  • Thigpen, Calvin, 2019. "Do bicycling experiences and exposure influence bicycling skills and attitudes? Evidence from a bicycle-friendly university," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt5bx856z7, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
  • Handle: RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt5bx856z7
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Hidalgo-González, Cristina & Rodríguez-Fernández, M Pilar & Pérez-Neira, David, 2022. "Energy consumption in university commuting: Barriers, policies and reduction scenarios in León (Spain)," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 48-57.
    2. Julia Janke & Calvin G. Thigpen & Susan Handy, 2021. "Examining the effect of life course events on modality type and the moderating influence of life stage," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 1089-1124, April.
    3. Morgan, Njogu, 2020. "The stickiness of cycling: Residential relocation and changes in utility cycling in Johannesburg," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    4. Pérez-Neira, David & Rodríguez-Fernández, Ma Pilar & Hidalgo-González, Cristina, 2020. "The greenhouse gas mitigation potential of university commuting: A case study of the University of León (Spain)," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    5. Ramezani, Samira & Hasanzadeh, Kamyar & Rinne, Tiina & Kajosaari, Anna & Kyttä, Marketta, 2021. "Residential relocation and travel behavior change: Investigating the effects of changes in the built environment, activity space dispersion, car and bike ownership, and travel attitudes," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 28-48.
    6. Gabriella Mazzulla & Maria Grazia Bellizzi & Laura Eboli & Carmen Forciniti, 2021. "Cycling for a Sustainable Touristic Mobility: A Preliminary Study in an Urban Area of Italy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-12, December.
    7. Kamruzzaman, Md. & Giles-Corti, Billie & De Vos, Jonas & Witlox, Frank & Shatu, Farjana & Turrell, Gavin, 2021. "The life and death of residential dissonants in transit-oriented development: A discrete time survival analysis," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    8. De Vos, Jonas & Singleton, Patrick A., 2020. "Travel and cognitive dissonance," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 525-536.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social and Behavioral Sciences; travel behavior; bicycling;
    All these keywords.

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