Bicycle as a local feeder to regional public transport

To create a sustainable transport system there is a need to increase trips made by public transport modes (bus, train, walk, bicycle, taxi etc) and decrease trips made by the car. The majority of passenger trips in urban areas combine more than one mode such as Park and Ride, Bike and Ride etc. The idea is to create more attractive intermodal public transport system that can compete with the car for the whole door- to-door trip. This demands faster and more comfortable public transport modes together with attractive local feeders. This paper deals with the issue of intermodality between local feeders (walk, bicycle, bus, car) and regional trains. Up till now the bicycle has been more or less forgotten in the planning process and few traffic models treat the bicycle as a separate mode. Specific measures to increase bicycle use are of great interest since the amount of people using the bicycle, especially in combination with locdregional public transport, continues to rise i many countries all over the world. The bicycle is used by persons in all age classes and for many purposes, for schooVwork trips as well as for leisure trips. Together with fast IocaYregional public transport the bicycle has shown to be a competitive option to the car. The faster public transport the greater number of bicyclists. A Danish study in Copenhagen showed that the bicycle can compete within a distance of 5 km from the IocaVregional train stations, Gvo Jensen J, 1995 (I). A similar study in south Sweden showed that 75% of the total number of bicycle trips can be found within a distance of 3 km from the station with a concentratim of 1-1.5 km. In the same part of Sweden 26% of the car trips, Nzlsson A, 1995 (2) and 50% of the local bus trips can be found within a distance of 3 !a, Rystam rf, 1996 (3). In average, 15-35% of the passengers use the bicycle as a feeder to regional trains in northern Europe, Rystum A, 1992 (4). The highest figures can be found in dense populated urban areas. i.e. in The Netherlands and in the county of Malmohuslan in south Sweden. In the county of Malmohuslan, Sweden, minimum 30% (max 55%) of the feeder trips to regional trains in the home part of the journey is made by bicycle and up to 25% in the away part of the journey, Rystam, 1996 (3). In the home part the bicycle users are mostly commuters and in the away part mostly they are leisure-, shopping- or other cathegories of passengers. Danish and Swedish study show that 2-10% of the passengers use the bicycle in both ends of a multimodal trip, the more commuters the higher share, Go JensenJ, 1995 (I) and Rystam, 1996 (3). All these fact makes the need of measures to improve intermodality even more important!!! In order to be able to do the correct mesures there is a need of knowing what factors that influence the bicycle use and to what extent! ! ! This paper deals with factors directly influencing the mode choice such as transport system factors, socioeconomic factors and trip related factors and factors indirectly influencing the mode choice; attitudinal factors