Year: 2012
Type: dissertation
Abstract: A tangle of health, quality-of-life, environmental, and economic concerns has prompted Seattle and other major US cities to pursue strategies that encourage more trips by foot, bike, and transit.Yet increasing bicycling rates remains a distinct challenge, as evidenced by the extremely low share of Americans-especially women-who choose the two-wheeled mode for their everyday journeys.Even in Seattle, which has earned accolades for bikefriendliness, men compose more than 70 percent of bike commuters.An understudied research area lies in determining why these gender differences exist, to what extent they can be overcome, and, in general, how best to attract cycling skeptics.A better understanding of motives for bicycling among both genders and their nuanced subgroups is essential if planners hope to shift more trips away from motorized modes and reap the array of benefits associated with active transportation.This master's thesis contributes to the limited body of research on gender-related bicycling behavior and preferences by examining four major questions: ( 1) What are the major barriers associated with Seattle women's decisions to bicycle for transportation?(2) What are the key motives that may cause Seattle women to start or increase their cycling?(3) How do these barriers and motives differ among Seattle women who do or do not consider themselves daily riders?and (4) Based on these factors, what strategies might planners and other interested stakeholders employ to encourage more cycling among Seattle women?This research centers on a quantitative analysis of responses from a non-representative I would like to thank a number of people and organizations who made vital contributions to the completion of my master's thesis.My committee members, Qing Shen and Fritz Wagner, provided helpful feedback throughout the research and writing process.Megan Horst gave fantastic comments and assistance while I refined my topic in her fall 2011 seminar, even as I completed the work on Netherlands time.The Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals, most notably Fionnuala Quinn and Kit Keller, were instrumental in providing access to the data from the Women's Cycling Project survey and offering other guidance.Anna Sibley of University of North Carolina-Greensboro offered useful insight on her previous work with this dataset and helped me to focus my analysis.Staff at Seattle Department of Transportation and Cascade Bicycle Club supplied relevant local data and insightful comments about the need for further knowledge about gender-related attitudes and behaviors in transportation.Staff and students at the UW Department of Statistics gave helpful consultation on my statistical methods.Thanks, too, to the classmates who endured reading drafts and offering comments, to my wonderful UW colleagues,
Author: Anne Broache
Language: English
Subfield: Transportation
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2337426542