European cyclists' travel behavior: Differences and similarities between seven European (PASTA) cities

Publication date: June 2018Source: Journal of Transport & Health, Volume 9Author(s): Elisabeth Raser, Mailin Gaupp-Berghausen, Evi Dons, Esther Anaya-Boig, Ione Avila-Palencia, Christian Brand, Alberto Castro, Anna Clark, Ulf Eriksson, Thomas Götschi, Luc Int Panis, Sonja Kahlmeier, Michelle Laeremans, Natalie Mueller, Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, Juan Pablo Orjuela, David Rojas-Rueda, Arnout Standaert, Erik Stigell, Regine GerikeAbstractWhile the annual number of trips of the average urban inhabitant has grown steadily in recent years, people are becoming less active while doing so. This lack of physical activity causes major health problems for individuals and great economic costs for society as a whole. Replacing short motorized trips by walking and cycling has been shown to increase physical activity in everyday life.The PASTA “Physical Activity through Sustainable Transport Approaches” project collected data in a longitudinal web-based survey with a cohort design to study the effects of active mobility on overall physical activity and health. An opportunistic sampling approach focusing on cyclists was applied to recruit more than 10000 participants in seven European cities, with half of them completing valid 1-day travel diaries at various time points.For this study, we compared ‘cyclists’ and ‘non-cyclists’ in terms of their overall travel behavior, physical activity and health. More than 2400 participants were identified as regular cyclists, 90% of which reached a...
Source: Journal of Transport and Health - Category: Occupational Health Source Type: research