Assessing Heterogeneity Among Cyclists Towards Importance of Bicycle Infrastructural Elements in Urban Areas

Promoting bicycling and making it attractive requires appropriate infrastructure. Sociodemographic characteristics, frequency and experiences of bike use, and purpose of bicycle trips can affect preferences towards bicycle infrastructure facilities in urban areas. Hence, this study aims to explore the heterogeneity in the perceived importance of bicycle infrastructure facility attributes in various cyclist groups based on gender, age, weekly biking frequency, daily cycling distance, cycling experience, and bicycle trip purpose. Data were collected from bicycle users through a questionnaire disseminated via social media platforms and QR code brochures distributed in Hasselt, Belgium. A 5-point Likert-type ordinal scale was used to collect data on the perceived importance of bicycle infrastructure facility indicators. The Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) was used to rank the indicators. At the same time, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were utilized to verify the heterogeneity among the groups. The findings reveal that bicycle infrastructure, i.e., bicycle lanes or paths, is the most critical variable, while the slope was considered the least important. No heterogeneity was found regarding the importance of bicycle infrastructure indicators based on gender. However, heterogeneity was observed based on age, daily bicycle use, cycling experience, weekly bicycle use, and bicycle trip purpose. The findings of this research help urban and transport planners develop improvement strategies for the city's existing bicycling facilities and prioritize future developments by considering various cyclist groups' preferences.