Do young adolescents enjoy long distance cycling to school? An exploratory research to understand attitudes and behavior in the Netherlands

Introduction The change from primary to secondary school has a negative impact on physical activity levels of adolescents. Cycling is an easy way of integrating physical activity into adolescents’ daily life. In the Netherland, cycling is rather common and around 80% of adolescents are cycling to school every day although they have to travel around 9km; however, the percentage dropped dramatically for adults. To maintain the habits of cycling is important to understand the attitude towards cycling and other mode of travel. This study aimed to uncover factors that makes young adolescents cycling to school unpleasant for them , using qualitative method. Methods An online interactive map-based questionnaire (Maptionnaire), focus group discussions, carrying a GPS logger and an online travel diary for 5 days, were used to understand attitudes and behavior towards long distance cycling to school in 36 adolescents (12-15 years). Results Although the majority of participants were cycling to school, only 30% of them chose cycling as their favorite travel mode. More than 80% of participants stated that the car is a more convenient travel mode, because protects you in bad weather and is faster than bicycle. Also, 70% of participants thought cycling in rural areas and along busy roads in city is not safe. A lot of adolescents stated that crowded cycling pathways around the school especially in the morning, makes cycling stressful. Almost half of adolescents doubted whether cycling to school is good for their health. They stated that it is stressful to cycle in overcrowded cycling pathways around the school in the morning. Long distance cycling on windy/rainy days, lack of traffic safety, and crowded cycling pathways around the school in the morning were mentioned as main reasons to make adolescents’ cycling to school unpleasant for them. Conclusion Cycling intervention should focus on improving adolescents’ traffic safety perceptions, and to take urgent steps to improve over-crowded cycle lanes at rush hours. Also it is important to educate adolescents on health benefits of cycling. It will help to maintain adolescents’ habit of cycling after reaching the age at which it is possible to ride a moped/car