Typologies of Urban Cyclists: Review of Market Segmentation Methods for Planning Practice

Abstract

Following global guidelines, several cities are investing in urban cycling. Cities are in different stages of cycling development and have adopted different approaches and packages of policies that are likely to be most effective at each stage. Urban cycling plans include investment in infrastructure, promotion, and education supporting the adoption of active modes for urban mobility. Some investments aim to meet current cyclists’ needs and others those of potential bicycle adopters. With respect to urban cyclists, several studies propose typologies, usually related to frequency, trip purpose, or motivation. This paper compares a set of cyclist typologies and the corresponding categorization methods and reviews 20 studies that considered different cyclists’ profiles. Most studies relied on expert judgment approaches or rule-based decisions; five considered multivariate analysis techniques for clustering groups, on the basis of data from surveys. Despite the variety of group categorizations, commonalities were found in most cases and divided cyclists into three main types: current cyclists (typically more proficient riders), potential cyclists (willing but not convinced), and noncyclists (unaware of or unwilling to shift to cycling). Dividing the population of potential cyclists into different typologies can better inform the different stages of planning for cycling infrastructure development by targeting more accurately the needs and requirements of different types of users. This is a key element in the management of a cycling network and cycling infrastructure, which are intended to be built on the basis of effective solutions and decisions to achieve desirable bicycle modal shares of regular trips.