Paper Details

TRB 91st Annual Meeting (January 22-26, 2012)

Event Number:	539
Event Title:	Bicycle Planning and the Built Environment
Event Date:	Jan 24 2012 10:45AM- 12:30PM
Event Location:	Hilton, International Center
Event Description:
Event Agenda:

Wherever You Go, There They Are? Examining Associations Between Rack Design, Land Use, Built Environment Characteristics, and Usage of Bicycle Parking Facilities (12-4427)

Municipalities continue to promote the economic, environmental, and health benefits of bicycling. Consistent with this objective, municipalities have increased efforts to install and improve bicycle parking facilities. However, there is limited research examining how usage of these facilities interacts with infrastructure, land use, and the built environment. This research begins to fill this gap through an examination of the association between bicycle rack design, land use, and built environment characteristics on bicycle rack usage. A complete inventory of all bicycle racks and cumulative bicycle parking spaces was undertaken in the Town of Chapel Hill, NC. A total of n=716 bicycle racks were inventoried and assessed based on usage of each facility. A zero-inflated negative binomial regression model was developed to examine associations between bicycle rack usage and bicycle rack design, land use, and built environment characteristics. Results find that type of rack, condition of the rack, accessibility, population density, employment density, street connectivity, distance to UNC, and distance to the nearest bicycle lane or path serve as significant predictors of bicycle rack usage. These results add to the existing research literature by identifying determinants that significantly predict usage of bicycle parking facilities and provide practitioners with additional insights behind the siting of new bicycle parking facilities. Future research is encouraged to further explore these associations from a qualitative standpoint such as conducting interviews with bicyclists at bicycle parking facilities.

Authors
Ousdahl, Michael , HDR Engineering, Inc.