Raimund K. Herz

The Use of the Bicycle

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INTRODUCTION

Within the last decade the German Federal Republic has experienced a remarkable renaissance of the bicycle. Sales of bicycles have doubled and even surpassed the pre-war figures. Of course, due to the almost complete motorization of German households, bicycle trips could not recover their pre-war levels. As a matter of fact, the percentage of trips made by bicycle steadily declined after World War II from over 50 percent to a slump of less than 10 percent until the renaissance of the bicycle in the early seventies. At the present time bicycle trips are approaching an average share of 15 percent, but with great variations from town to town and region to region.^1-3

What are the reasons for this variation and the recent revival of the bicycle? Of course there are many, and they are intricately interwoven. Some variations are due to the topographical situation and a long tradition of cycling which led to an extended network of bicycle facilities. Unfortunately these networks have almost everywhere been considerably reduced during the fifties and sixties, when urban transportation planners and politicians expanded the road space for the avalanche of motor-cars. Even untouched old streets which had formerly been conveniently used by both cars and bikes turned into a dangerous and unhealthy place for cyclists due to the increased motor-vehicle volume. Few towns were able to avoid this deterioration of bicycle facilities, and few succeeded in implementing their bicycle programmes, which became so popular at the end of the seventies, against the vested interests of the car drivers.⁴ Notable exception for a successful fight against the "windshield perspective" is the town of Erlangen⁵ - after creating an environment favourable to cycling, bike trip rates doubled within a few years. Other German towns, particularly medium sized towns, are now trying to catch on to this success and get federal assistance to do so.⁶

Another group of reasons for variation and revival of bicycle use lies in the sociodemographic structure and change of the population. It is well known that cyclists predominantly stem from those segments of the population which for various reasons are excluded from the use of the private car: mainly youngsters, women, particularly "green widows" without a second car in the family, the poor, of course. and the many elderly without driving licence who are physically fit for cycling. There is a significant spatial variation of these population subgroups, and certainly the increasing number of the subgroup which most intensively uses the bike, that is boys and girls from 10 to 18 years of age. has contributed heavily to the increasing overall number of trips made by bicycle. After the "birthberg." i.e. the peak of births in the mid-sixties, will have passed through this age-group, we might expect a decline of bicycle use, provided the reasons of the third kind will not sustain to grow.

These reasons are the most difficult ones to account for: attitudinal changes in favour of the bike and disfavour of the motor-car. Major impulses came from the environmental protection movement stigmatizing the detrimental effects of the extensive use of the motor-car and pleading a life style in harmony with nature. These forces have been backed up by the energy crisis, the growing annoyance about material consumption and the physical fitness movement. In certain groups of the society it has become a matter of an alternative ideology to leave the car at home and ride the bicycle.

In this paper, the major determinants of cycling, especially factors of influence of the first two kinds. will be analysed empirically on the basis of an extensive survey about the travel behaviour of Germans over ten years of age, conducted in 1976 by Sozialforschung Brög, the so called KONTIV 76. These findings will be compared with data from more recent surveys, conducted in a few German cities in a similar way by the same institution. Subsequently the potentials and measures for increasing the use of bicycles will be evaluated. However. at first some general remarks on the methodology of analysing and modelling the travel behaviour of cyclists seem appropriate.