Everyday cycling in urban environments: Understanding behaviours and constraints in space-time

Motorised transport contributes to greenhouse gas emissions which also impact on climate change. But, cycling as a means of transport has the potential to ameliorate this situation; hence, understanding cycling as means of transport is paramount. This research is partly a response to calls from UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence 2012 recommendations as well as urban transport literature for further research to incorporate the investigation and discovery of cyclists’ perception and experiences (Forsyth and Krizek, 2011; NICE, 2012; Skinner and Rose, 2007); to support urban designers as well as cycling policy interventions and transportation engineers and thereby increase cycling uptake to ensure sustainable means of transport with low impact on environment. The ultimate realisations of cycling benefits by cities – such as cities in North East England – are hampered by lack of appropriate data to inform policy strategies to improve cycling uptake as well as data processing methodologies. Moreover, several efforts are being made to enhance data availability to inform policy strategies and cycling uptake for which this research aim to contribute. The purpose of this research is to provide evidence on the use of the area’s cycling infrastructure by experienced commuter cyclists. This research has for the first time facilitated the collection and analysis of detailed bicyclists’ route choices in the UK, bringing substantive empirical evidence for understanding daily cycling behaviours. The paper is in four main parts: description of the methods employed in this research and sample characteristics; spatial analysis to understand our sample’s commonalities and differences with other areas; comparative spatial analysis of the primary tracks with “official” cycling network data of the study area; and, further discussion and conclusion part summarising the early findings of this research.