Bicycle Commuting

Cycling is cheaper, healthier and in urban environments often faster than other transport modes. Nevertheless, even at short distances, many individuals do not cycle. This thesis aims to explain why commuters vary in their decision to bicycle. Results indicate that the individual (day-to-day) choice to commute by bicycle is affected by personal attitudes towards cycling to work, social norms, work situation, weather conditions and trip characteristics. Additionally, this thesis provides evidence that different groups of bicycle commuters exist: non-cyclists, part-time cyclists and full-time cyclists. The mode choice of individuals within these groups (partly) depends on a number of different factors. Non-cyclists seem not to cycle because they consider it impossible, either due to the distance involved, their need to transport goods, the need for a car during office hours, or a negative subjective norm. The decision to cycle among part-time or full-time cyclists is also affected by these factors, but additional factors can be identified. Finally, the day-to-day choice to cycle is based on work characteristics, weather conditions and trip characteristics. Part-time cyclists who cycle only occasionally are encouraged by pleasant weather conditions, while frequent cyclists are found to be discouraged by more practical barriers, such as where they need to work on that day.&nbsp

Motives, perceptions and experiences of electric bicycle owners and implications for health, wellbeing and mobility

This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2016.04.006The sale of electrically assisted bicycles (‘e-bikes’) is growing at a rapid rate across Europe. Whereas market data is available describing sales trends, there is limited understanding of the experience of early adopters of e-bike technology. This paper investigates the motives for e-bike purchase, rider experience and perceived impact on mobility, health and wellbeing through in-depth interviews with e-bike owners in the Netherlands and the UK. Findings revealed that the motive for purchasing e-bikes was often to allow maintenance of cycling against a backdrop of changing individual or household circumstances. E-bikes also provided new opportunities for people who would not otherwise consider conventional cycling. Perceptions of travel behaviour change revealed that e-biking was replacing conventional cycling but was also replacing journeys that would have been made by car. There was also a perception that e-biking has increased, or at least allowed participants to maintain, some form of physical activity and had benefitted personal wellbeing. Technological, social and environmental barriers to e-biking were identified. These included weight of bicycle, battery life, purchase price, social stigma and limitations of cycle infrastructure provision. Additional research is necessary to quantify actual levels of mode substitution and new journey generation among new e-bike owners and the impact of e-biking on promoting physical health and mental wellbeing.This work was supported by The NetherlandsOrganization for Scientific Research (NWO) (434-11-010) as part of the Sustainable Accessibility of the Randstad programme. Lucas Harms undertook conceptualisation, fieldwork, analysis and writing whilst working at the Urban Cycling Institute of the University of Amsterdam. Eva Heinen undertook conceptualisation and fieldwork whilst at the Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen (NL), and subsequent analysis and writing under the auspices of the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), a UK Public Health Research Centre of Excellence funded by the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research, and the Wellcome Trust. She is now based at the Institute of Transport Studies at the University of Leeds. We would like to thank NWO, colleagues at the University of Amsterdam, University of Groningen and Oxford Brookes University - particularly Nick Beale for proof reading. Also, to all of our participants who willingly gave up their time to provide a rich insight into their ebiking

Entwicklung einer Textminingmethode zur automatisierten Extraktion von kinetischen Informationen aus der Literatur

Die Menge an verfügbaren biologischen Informationen ist über die letzten Jahre stetig angestiegen. Es ist daher essentiell, dass das enthaltene Wissen leicht zugänglich gemacht wird, wie z.B. in Datenbänken. Zum Erstellen solcher Datenbänke können Methoden zur automatischen Extraktion dieser Informationen verwendet werden. Eine pragmatische Methode zur Extraktion kinetischer Informationen aus ca. 17 Millionen Abstracts der PubMed unter Verwendung von Lexika wurde entwickelt. Es wurden Informationen zu KM, Ki, kcat, kcat/KM, Vmax, IC50, S0.5, Kd, Ka, t1/2, pI, Enzymnamen, EC Nummern, Liganden, Organismen, Lokalisationen, pH-Wert und Temperatur extrahiert. 509.153 kinetische Informationen konnten extrahiert werden, mit einer Precision von 55% bis zu 96% und einem Recall von 51% bis zu 84%. Die erhaltenen Informationen sind in der Datenbank "KID the KInetic Database" im Internet zugänglich

Impact of New Transport Infrastructure on Walking, Cycling, and Physical Activity.

INTRODUCTION: Walking and cycling bring health and environmental benefits, but there is little robust evidence that changing the built environment promotes these activities in populations. This study evaluated the effects of new transport infrastructure on active commuting and physical activity. STUDY DESIGN: Quasi-experimental analysis nested within a cohort study. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: Four hundred and sixty-nine adult commuters, recruited through a predominantly workplace-based strategy, who lived within 30 kilometers of Cambridge, United Kingdom and worked in areas of the city to be served by the new transport infrastructure. INTERVENTION: The Cambridgeshire Guided Busway opened in 2011 and comprised a new bus network and a traffic-free walking and cycling route. Exposure to the intervention was defined using the shortest distance from each participant's home to the busway. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Change in weekly time spent in active commuting between 2009 and 2012, measured by validated 7-day recall instrument. Secondary outcomes were changes in total weekly time spent walking and cycling and in recreational and overall physical activity, measured using the validated Recent Physical Activity Questionnaire. Data were analyzed in 2014. RESULTS: In multivariable multinomial regression models--adjusted for potential sociodemographic, geographic, health, and workplace confounders; baseline active commuting; and home or work relocation-exposure to the busway was associated with a significantly greater likelihood of an increase in weekly cycle commuting time (relative risk ratio=1.34, 95% CI=1.03, 1.76) and with an increase in overall time spent in active commuting among the least active commuters at baseline (relative risk ratio=1.76, 95% CI=1.16, 2.67). The study found no evidence of changes in recreational or overall physical activity. CONCLUSIONS: Providing new sustainable transport infrastructure was effective in promoting an increase in active commuting. These findings provide new evidence to support reconfiguring transport systems as part of public health improvement strategies.JP is supported by a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) post-doctoral fellowship (PDF- 2012-05-157). EH is supported by an NIHR Public Health Research project grant (see below) and DO is supported by the Medical Research Council [Unit Programme number MC_UP_12015/6]. RM is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England. The Commuting and Health in Cambridge Study was initially funded under the auspices of the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), a UKCRC Public Health Research Centre of Excellence. Funding from the British Heart Foundation, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research and the Wellcome Trust, under the auspices of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, is gratefully acknowledged. The study is now funded by the National Institute for Health Research Public Health Research programme (project number 09/3001/06). The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NIHR PHR programme or the Department of HealthThis is the final version of the article. It was first available from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2015.09.02

Changes in active commuting and changes in physical activity in adults: a cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Active travel is associated with greater physical activity, but there is a dearth of research examining this relationship over time. We examined the longitudinal associations between change in time spent in active commuting and changes in recreational and total physical activity. METHODS: Adult commuters working in Cambridge, United Kingdom completed questionnaires in 2009 and 2012, and a sub-set completed objective physical activity monitoring in 2010 and 2012. Commuting was assessed using a validated seven-day travel to work record. Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity was assessed using the Recent Physical Activity Questionnaire and combined heart rate and movement sensing. We used multivariable multinomial logistic regression models to examine associations between change in time spent in active commuting and tertiles of changes in time spent in recreational and total physical activity. RESULTS: Four hundred sixty-nine participants (67% female, mean age 44 years) provided valid travel and self-reported physical activity data. Seventy-one participants (54% female, mean age 45 years) provided valid travel and objectively measured physical activity data. A decrease in active commuting was associated with a greater likelihood of a decrease in self-reported total physical activity (relative risk ratio [RRR] 2.1, 95% CI 1.1, 4.1). Correspondingly, an increase in active commuting was associated with a borderline significantly greater likelihood of an increase in self-reported total physical activity (RRR 1.8, 95% CI 1.0, 3.4). No associations were seen between change in time spent in active commuting and change in time spent in either self-reported recreational physical activity or objectively measured physical activity. CONCLUSIONS: Changes in active commuting were associated with commensurate changes in total self-reported physical activity and we found no compensatory changes in self-reported recreational physical activity. Promoting active commuting has potential as a public health strategy to increase physical activity. Future longitudinal research would be useful to verify these findings.LF and EH are supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Public Health Research programme. JP is supported by an NIHR post-doctoral fellowship (PDF-2012-05-157). DO and RP are supported by the Medical Research Council [Unit Programme number MC_UP_12015/6]. The Commuting and Health in Cambridge study was developed by David Ogilvie, Simon Griffin, Andy Jones and Roger Mackett and initially funded under the auspices of the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), a UKCRC Public Health Research Centre of Excellence. Funding from the British Heart Foundation, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research and the Wellcome Trust, under the auspices of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, is gratefully acknowledged. The study is now funded by the National Institute for Health Research Public Health Research programme (NIHR PHR; project number 09/3001/06: see http://www.phr.nihr.ac.uk/funded_projects).This is the final version of the article. It was first available from BioMed Central via http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12966-015-0323-

An extended conceptualization of the relationship between the built environment and travel behavior

Despite a large body of research suggesting that the built environment influences individual travel behavior, uncertainty remains about the true nature, size, and strength of any causal relationships between the built environment and travel behavior. Residential self-selection, the phenomenon whereby individuals or households select a residential area based on their transport attitudes, is a frequently proposed alternative explanation for the reported associations. To resolve the issue of residential self-selection, longitudinal studies are often recommended. In this paper, we argue that intervention study designs are insufficient to fully resolve the problem and that intervention studies on the built environment and travel behavior may still be biased by residential selfselection. The aim of this paper is to extend existing conceptualizations of the relationships between the built environment, travel behavior, and attitudes and to provide suggestions for how a causal relationship between the built environment and travel behavior may be ascertained with more accurate estimates of effect sizes. We discuss the complexities of determining causal effects in intervention studies with participants who relocate, and the biases that may occur. We illustrate the complexities by presenting extended conceptualizations. Based on these conceptualizations, we provide considerations for future research. We suggest repeating analyses with and without individuals who relocated during the study, and with and without statistical controls for residential relocation. Additional quantitative and qualitative analyses will be necessary to obtain more accurate effect size estimates and a better understanding of the causal relationships. JP and DO were supported by the Medical Research Council [Unit Program number MC_UP_12015/6]. The Commuting and Health in Cambridge study was developed by David Ogilvie, Simon Griffin, Andy Jones and Roger Mackett and initially funded under the auspices of the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), a UKCRC Public Health Research Centre of Excellence. Funding from the British Heart Foundation, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research and the Wellcome Trust, under the auspices of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, is gratefully acknowledged. The study was subsequently funded by the National Institute for Health Research Public Health Research program. Document type: Articl

Direct evidence for attention-dependent influences of the frontal eye-fields on feature-responsive visual cortex

Voluntary selective attention can prioritize different features in a visual scene. The frontal eye-fields (FEF) are one potential source of such feature-specific top-down signals, but causal evidence for influences on visual cortex (as was shown for "spatial" attention) has remained elusive. Here, we show that transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) applied to right FEF increased the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signals in visual areas processing "target feature" but not in "distracter feature"-processing regions. TMS-induced BOLD signals increase in motion-responsive visual cortex (MT+) when motion was attended in a display with moving dots superimposed on face stimuli, but in face-responsive fusiform area (FFA) when faces were attended to. These TMS effects on BOLD signal in both regions were negatively related to performance (on the motion task), supporting the behavioral relevance of this pathway. Our findings provide new causal evidence for the human FEF in the control of nonspatial "feature"-based attention, mediated by dynamic influences on feature-specific visual cortex that vary with the currently attended propert

Conceptualizing Micromobility

While micromobility has seen a significant rise of interest across policy, industry and academia, a detailed conceptualisation of it has so far been missing from the scientific literature. This paper develops a multi-dimensional conceptualisation of micromobility, in conjunction with a new socio-technical definition. To do so, it reviews related concepts; it analyses how the term micromobility has been used; and it critically engages with existing definitions most frequently cited in this literature. Building on these insights, we develop a multi-dimensional conceptualization of micromobility. Our definition of micromobility covers a wide range of mobility options that can typically be manoeuvred by one human without motor assistance, at least for short distances, and that are ‘micro’ in terms of energy demand, environmental impact, and use of road space, relative to automobility. According to our conceptualisation, micromobility modes comprise fully human powered, partially motor assisted and fully powered options. They typically do not exceed 25 kilometres per hour (or 45 for faster ones) and weigh (often significantly) less than 350 kilogram, while often providing some (public) health benefits. Trip lengths are typically less than 15 kilometres and daily distance travelled less than 80 kilometres. This new definition has relevance for future transport and mobility scholarship, as well as policy and evaluation. Advantages of a new and widely accepted definition and conceptualisation of micromobility could include more robust design standards, legislation, as well as evaluation metrics and methods, all leading to greater understanding of, and attention paid to, this form of mobility. This paper highlights the important role that micromobilities could play in moving beyond automobility, to create more sustainable and just mobility futures

Conceptualizing Micromobility:The Multi-Dimensional and Socio-Technical Perspective

Micromobility has gained attention from policymakers, industry stakeholders, and academia; however, a comprehensive conceptualization of micromobility is still missing. Existing definitions are largely vehicle-centric: either listing modes or detailing vehicle characteristics. This paper addresses this gap by developing a ‘beyond vehicles’, multi-dimensional conceptualization of micromobility, accompanied by a novel socio-technical definition. Through a review of related concepts, combined with an analysis of the use and definitions of the term micromobility in publications, this study establishes a new conceptualization of micromobility. It incorporates human, social, and cultural dimensions, considers environmental, economic, infrastructure, vehicle technology, regulatory and policy aspects, and considerations for public health. Our definition of micromobility encompasses a wide range of mobility options typically used for shorter trips and manoeuvrable by an individual without motor assistance, at least for short distances. These modes are characterized by their ‘micro’ attributes, including low energy demand, environmental impact, and road space use relative to automobility. The conceptualization incorporates a range of micromobility modes, including fully human-powered (including walking), partially motor-assisted, and fully powered options. These modes typically operate at speeds not exceeding 25 to 32 kilometres per hour (or 45 km/h for faster options), weigh (typically substantially) below 350 kilograms and often yield significant (public) health benefits. Trip length is generally less than 15 kilometres, and daily distances under 80 kilometres. Importantly, our definition includes the practices, policies, cultures, and infrastructures that emerge around the use of micromobility options and shape their uptake. This proposed conceptualization significantly broadens the prevailing vehicle-focus in micromobility debates towards a socio-technical perspective. Embracing a widely accepted conceptualisation of micromobility would offer several advantages, including robust design standards, legislation, and evaluation metrics and methods. Additionally, this paper highlights the pivotal role micromobilities can play in transcending the limitations of automobility, towards more sustainable and equitable mobility futures

Key events and multimodality: A life course approach

Since the large majority of households have access to one or more cars in the developed world, encouraging multimodal travel behaviours has become a goal for many cities. Multimodality refers to the use of more than one transport mode within a given period of time. While correlates of multimodality have been identified from cross-sectional data, there is very little known about the circumstances over time in which individuals become more or less multimodal. This paper is the first to fully adopt the mobility biography approach to study changes in multimodality over time at the individual level. Multimodality is measured using four continuous indicators of mode use in a seven-day period: the share in trips made by the most commonly used mode (primary mode), the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, Shannon's entropy, and the number of modes used. The paper uses the German Mobility Panel (GMP) for the period 1994–2012. The results demonstrate that some of the life course events studied are significantly associated with changes in multimodality. Specifically, a child moving out of the household increases the multimodality of parents. Leaving the labour market increases multimodality, while entering the labour market conversely reduces multimodality. Changes in car access and driver licence holding have significant effects as well. An improvement to the public transport system in the neighbourhood increases multimodality, and vice versa. Reduced parking space availability also increases multimodality. The latter two findings endorse ‘carrot and stick’ transport policies as means of creating a more balanced use of transport modes