Experienced travel time as policy instrument
The experience of travel time might play a central role in the mode choice and route choice of cyclists. A small field study between Utrecht Central Station and the Ravellaan showed that cyclists often choose a longer route because they considered it as more pleasant and they often perceived it as being shorter (Goudappel Coffeng, 2012). Similar findings, also from Utrecht, were reported by Van Duppen and Spierings (2013). This raises questions on the potential of these notions for cycling policies: How important is real travel time in comparison to perceived time? What do relatively boring cycle highways do in terms of experience? How does perceived stress influence route- and mode choice? Or comfort? How can insights on this be used to improve transport models and cost-benefit analyses?
Together with Goudappel Coffeng, we are doing a crowdfunded research project to find answers on these questions.
