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Hindi Research Article
Urban College Student Bicycle Commuting: A Look at Differences in Riding Behavior by Gender
Chaney RA* and Payne HDepartment of Health Science, Brigham Young University, USA
- Corresponding Author:
- Robert A Chaney, Ph.D
Assistant Professor, Department of Health Science
Brigham Young University, 4103 Life Science Building
Provo, Utah, 84602, USA
Tel: 801-422-0658
E-mail: rchaney@byu.edu
Received Date: March 06, 2017; Accepted Date: April 20, 2017; Published Date: April 24, 2017
Citation: Chaney RA, Payne H (2017) Urban College Student Bicycle Commuting: A Look at Differences in Riding Behavior by Gender. J Community Med Health Educ 7:519. doi:10.4172/2161-0711.1000519
Copyright: © 2017 Chaney RA, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Many bicycling collisions are attributable to individual rider behavior. Prior research demonstrates gender differences in active transportation. Research for on-road, in-traffic riding behavior between genders is limited. In this study, bicycle commuters (n=671) traveling to a large, metropolitan university in Provo, Utah were directly observed over two weeks during fall, 2014 at peak morning and peak night commute times. Data were collected for passing bicyclists: Rider characteristics and behaviors. 23.10% of bicycle commuters were female, 22.21% wore bicycle helmets, 3.24% used hand signals to indicate turning or slowing, and 10.94% used both a front and rear light while riding at night. Significant associations were observed between gender and road position even after controlling for rider and environmental factors (women more often used the crosswalk (OR=1.72, 95% CI [1.22, 2.34]), sidewalk (OR=1.39, 95% CI [1.01, 1.93]), and traveled in the wrong-direction (OR=1.41, 95% CI [1.01, 1.94])); and use a night headlight (OR=1.40, 95% CI [1.40, 5.76]). Bicyclists’ behavior changed with traffic volume and day/night conditions. Understanding gender differences will be important for targeting different risk factors and promoting safe commuting among all genders.
