Trails, Lanes, or Traffic: Value of Different Bicycle Facilities Using Adaptive Stated-Preference Survey

This study evaluates individual preferences for five different cycling environments by trading off a higher travel time as a cost incurred when choosing a better facility while letting the user have the option of selecting a less attractive facility at a lower travel time. The tradeoff of travel time to amenities of a particular facility informs our understanding of the value attached to different attributes such as bike-lanes, off-road trails, or side-street parking. The facilities considered here are off-road facilities, in-traffic facilities with bike-lane and no side street parking, in-traffic facilities with a bike-lane and side street parking, in-traffic facilities with no bike-lane and no side street parking and in-traffic facilities with no bike-lane but with parking on the side. We find that respondents are willing to travel up to twenty minutes more to switch from an unmarked on-road facility with side parking to an off-road bicycle trail, with smaller changes associated with less dramatic improvements. ) presented at 84th Annual Meeting of Transportation Research Board in Washington, DC, January 9-13th 2005.