Understanding the relation between travel duration and station choice behavior of cyclists in the metropolitan region of Amsterdam

Abstract

With 35,000 km of bicycle pathways, cycling is common among persons of all ages less than 65 years in the Netherlands. Bicycle is often seen as a standalone travel mode but when integrated as part of a multimodal trip with train, it can be an important solution for long distance journeys, offering increased flexibility and faster access time compared to other travel modes. In this paper we investigate which factors influence departure station choice on combined bicycle–train and bicycle-metro trips in the metropolitan region of Amsterdam. Data from a mobile app was used to track an individual’s travel behavior over the years 2018 and 2019. A discrete choice model was estimated to see whether people prefer to park their bicycle at the station with the shortest travel duration or one of the stations with a longer travel duration. The final results show that level of education and age negatively influence the choice for cycling to the second closest station. Furthermore, the results show that people with an origin inside Amsterdam prefer to travel to a train station regardless of their destination.