Revealed Preference Methods for Studying Bicycle Route Choice-A Systematic Review

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health 2018-03, Vol.15 (3), p.470
• Main Author: Pritchard, Ray
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Air pollution; Bicycles; Bicycling; Cameras; Choice Behavior; Computer applications; Computer simulation; Computer vision; Data collection; Exercise; Geographic Information Systems; Grey literature; Humans; Identification methods; Infrastructure; Methods; Outdoor air quality; Preferences; Review; Route choice; Route selection; Smartphone; Smartphones; Studies; Travel; Urban areas; Urban environments; Virtual reality
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph15030470

One fundamental aspect of promoting utilitarian bicycle use involves making modifications to the built environment to improve the safety, efficiency and enjoyability of cycling. Revealed preference data on bicycle route choice can assist greatly in understanding the actual behaviour of a highly heterogeneous group of users, which in turn assists the prioritisation of infrastructure or other built environment initiatives. This systematic review seeks to compare the relative strengths and weaknesses of the empirical approaches for evaluating whole journey route choices of bicyclists. Two electronic databases were systematically searched for a selection of keywords pertaining to bicycle and route choice. In total seven families of methods are identified: GPS devices, smartphone applications, crowdsourcing, participant-recalled routes, accompanied journeys, egocentric cameras and virtual reality. The study illustrates a trade-off in the quality of data obtainable and the average number of participants. Future additional methods could include dockless bikeshare, multiple camera solutions using computer vision and immersive bicycle simulator environments.