{"title":"Substituting car trips with cycling in Finland: A traveller segmentation analysis","authors":"Johannes Mesimäki, Esko Lehtonen, Anu Tuominen","doi":"10.1016/j.trd.2025.104655","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Integrating cycling within daily routines by substituting car trips could improve sustainability and increase physical activity. We estimated the quantity of single-occupancy car trips that could be cycled in Finland during snow-free times of the year and their distribution among traveller segments based on Finnish 2016 national travel survey data. Hierarchical clustering applied to a distance matrix created by a random forest model classifying regular and irregular cyclists was used for segmentation.</div><div>Approximately 7% of car trips were deemed cyclable. These were distributed unevenly across eight traveller segments extracted from the data, which differed by travel behaviour, urbanisation, age, primary activity and population size. The results suggest that replacing car use with cycling in a routinised manner while meeting existing travel needs is not viable for most people. We highlight the urgency of improving the transportation system’s ability to consistently fulfil travel needs with cycling to facilitate large-scale modal shifting.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23277,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part D-transport and Environment","volume":"141 ","pages":"Article 104655"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Transportation Research Part D-transport and Environment","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1361920925000653","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Integrating cycling within daily routines by substituting car trips could improve sustainability and increase physical activity. We estimated the quantity of single-occupancy car trips that could be cycled in Finland during snow-free times of the year and their distribution among traveller segments based on Finnish 2016 national travel survey data. Hierarchical clustering applied to a distance matrix created by a random forest model classifying regular and irregular cyclists was used for segmentation.
Approximately 7% of car trips were deemed cyclable. These were distributed unevenly across eight traveller segments extracted from the data, which differed by travel behaviour, urbanisation, age, primary activity and population size. The results suggest that replacing car use with cycling in a routinised manner while meeting existing travel needs is not viable for most people. We highlight the urgency of improving the transportation system’s ability to consistently fulfil travel needs with cycling to facilitate large-scale modal shifting.
期刊介绍:
Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment focuses on original research exploring the environmental impacts of transportation, policy responses to these impacts, and their implications for transportation system design, planning, and management. The journal comprehensively covers the interaction between transportation and the environment, ranging from local effects on specific geographical areas to global implications such as natural resource depletion and atmospheric pollution.
We welcome research papers across all transportation modes, including maritime, air, and land transportation, assessing their environmental impacts broadly. Papers addressing both mobile aspects and transportation infrastructure are considered. The journal prioritizes empirical findings and policy responses of regulatory, planning, technical, or fiscal nature. Articles are policy-driven, accessible, and applicable to readers from diverse disciplines, emphasizing relevance and practicality. We encourage interdisciplinary submissions and welcome contributions from economically developing and advanced countries alike, reflecting our international orientation.