Cycling or Ropeway – Two Choices of Environmentally Friendly Urban Modes

Abstract

Ropeways have proven to be a suitable extension to public transport in Latin American cities. Numerous ropeway projects are being discussed in Europe. These have not yet progressed beyond the planning stage because, among other reasons, no assessments of potential demand have been carried out. Current travel demand models do not consider mode-specific properties of ropeways and cycling competing with public transport. Based on a stated choice experiment, a mode choice model for people without car availability was estimated. Besides standard attributes like travel times and costs, the impact of mode-specific attributes like service rates, crowding, reliability, personal attitudes and weather conditions were tested. A Mixed-Logit model was estimated showing significant influence of these attributes on mode choice in Graz, an Austrian city with a mode share of 20% each for cyclists and public transport. The introduction of a ropeway can increase the share of public transport, as the high capacity and reliability of ropeways have a positive effect. However, it is unlikely that some groups of cyclists will use the ropeway, as travel time and cost are factors that are more important. The database and the modeling approaches can also be applied to other ropeway projects.