Exploring Cycling Behavior Shifts among Young Adults through a Longitudinal Cohort Survey

Abstract

Young adults often use sustainable transportation options, such as public transportation, cycling, and walking for daily transportation. However, evidence on the retention of sustainable travel behaviors is unclear, and longitudinal analysis of travel behavior changes among young adults is scarce. The disruption in travel behavior caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and significant attention toward the promotion of active transportation during and after the pandemic, offered an opportunity to explore this topic in a quasi-experimental setting. We utilized survey data from two waves (baseline and follow-up) of a longitudinal online cohort of 552 respondents in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, Canada, who were post-secondary students in 2019. Using the data, we explored the association between changes in commute-related cycling frequency (unchanged, started cycling, and stopped cycling) and respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics, pre-pandemic travel satisfaction, and life events during the pandemic years. About 8% of respondents self-reported that they started cycling for commuting after the pandemic, and another 6% reported that they stopped cycling. Results from a discrete choice multinomial logit model indicate that younger age and pre-pandemic travel satisfaction with active transportation modes were associated with higher odds of starting to cycle after the pandemic. Furthermore, starting full-time work was associated with higher odds of stopping cycling for commuting purposes. Moving residence to more urban locations was associated with higher odds of starting to cycle, but this association was not statistically significant when other factors were taken into account.