Lars Böcker

Impact of Everyday Weather on Individual Daily Travel Behaviours in Perspective: A Literature Review

In the light of growing societal interest for climate change adaptation and mitigation, insights into the meaning of weather conditions for travel behaviours—particularly walking and cycling—have become very important. Recently, various studies from transport, health and biometeorological disciplines have touched upon the relevance of weather for daily activities and travel, yet a review and critical assessment of the existing knowledge are lacking. Hence, the aim of this review is first to bring together these contributions and provide a systematic and comprehensive overview concerning the impact of weather conditions on daily travel activities. Second, the methodological, contextual and behavioural backgrounds of the studies will be discussed. The major conclusion is that the existing studies present an incomplete and fragmented picture of the impact of weather on travel behaviour, which makes effective planning for climate change a harsh job. In the conclusions, some lines for future research will be recommended.

Adult active transport in the Netherlands: An analysis of its contribution to physical activity requirements

Introduction Modern, urban lifestyles have engineered physical activity out of everyday life and this presents a major threat to human health. The Netherlands is a world leader in active travel, particularly cycling, but little research has sought to quantify the cumulative amount of physical activity through everyday walking and cycling. Methods Using data collected as part of the Dutch National Travel Survey (2010 – 2012), this paper determines the degree to which Dutch walking and cycling contributes to meeting minimum level of physical activity of 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic activity throughout the week. The sample includes 74,465 individuals who recorded at least some travel on the day surveyed. As physical activity benefits are cumulative, all walking and cycling trips are analysed, including those to and from public transport. These trips are then converted into an established measure of physical activity intensity, known as metabolic equivalents of tasks. Multivariate Tobit regression models were performed on a range of socio-demographic, transport resources, urban form and meteorological characteristics. Results The results reveal that Dutch men and women participate in 24 and 28 minutes of daily physical activity through walking and cycling, which is 41% and 55% more than the minimum recommended level. It should be noted however that some 57% of the entire sample failed to record any walking or cycling, and an investigation of this particular group serves as an important topic of future research. Active transport was positively related with age, income, bicycle ownership, urban density and air temperature. Car ownership had a strong negative relationship with physically active travel. Conclusion The results of this analysis demonstrate the significance of active transport to counter the emerging issue of sedentary lifestyle disease. The Dutch experience provides other countries with a highly relevant case study in the creation of environments and cultures that support healthy, active living.

Integrated Weather Effects on Cycling Shares, Frequencies, and Durations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands

AbstractWith the increasing societal interest in climate change, health, accessibility, and liveability and subsequent policy aims to promote active transport modes over car usage, many scholars have investigated the relationship between weather and cycling. Existing studies, however, hardly address the effects of weather on cycling durations and often lack assessments of the combined effects of different meteorological variables and potential nonlinearity of these effects. Drawing on travel diary data from a panel study of 945 Greater Rotterdam respondents (the Netherlands), this paper investigates and compares the effects of different meteorological variables, singly as well as combined, on cycling frequencies, cycling durations, and the exchange between cycling and other transport modes. Results show linear negative effects of precipitation sum and wind speed and nonlinear bell-shaped effects of thermal variables on cycling and opposite effects on car usage. Out of three thermal variables investigated,...