A Comparison of the Route Preferences of Experienced and Inexperienced Bicycle Commuters

This paper examines differences in bicycle route preferences across individuals with different levels of experience in bicycle commuting to work (or school). Individuals are categorized as follows: those who are experienced in bicycle commuting, those who are inexperienced in bicycle commuting but who are interested in trying it, and those who are inexperienced and not interested in trying it. Data gathered from an original stated preference survey administered over the Internet by the authors are used to estimate binary logit models of route choice for each class of respondents. The results quantitatively demonstrate the differential importance of each route factor to individuals of each level of experience. In general, experienced commuter bicyclists are far more sensitive to factors related to travel time and far less sensitive to factors related to separation from automobiles than the inexperienced individuals.