The willingness to pay of various types of bike parking-users at train stations for different types of facilities and stations

Abstract

Bike-train usage contributes to more sustainable and also more reliable transport. Nowadays, approximately 45% of the train passengers in the Netherlands access the station by bike. Therewith, the focus of policy makers shifts to the total “door-to-door” travel experience. Bicycle usage is stimulated, and the facilities are adapted accordingly. From a lot of perspectives, this can be seen as a positive trend. Unfortunately, it also has negative consequences in terms of capacity problems in parking facilities and costs. To be able to guide a better service to multimodal travellers, more insights should be gathered regarding their experience and willingness to pay for certain aspects. Most studies focus on the characteristics of bike-train users and their behaviour. In consequence, the quality of the parking facility is considered very limited. The impact of this quality on the user experience is considered even less. For example, the impact of a free of charge parking period is not known. More aspects influencing the users’ experience and behaviour might exist as well. Studies also often focus on one station or one area, which makes it hard to draw general conclusions. Lastly, the relationship between the willingness to pay and the expected subscription price is unknown. By getting a better understanding of the attributes influencing the choice behaviour of facility users, an insight is given into the preferences of passengers concerning bicycle parking. The effects of pricing policies on the user experience and utilisation at various facilities are of great interest to NS (Dutch Railways). For a full overview, there has to be differentiated to types of facilities and types of stations. The following research question is answered during this thesis: What is the willingness to pay of various types of bike parking-users at train stations for different types of facilities and at different types of stations? Literature addresses several attributes which are influential when using the bike-train combination. Attributes can be split into user characteristics, parking facility characteristics and station characteristics. Based on an ongoing data collection effort (Keten Belevings Monitor or KBM), user characteristics of guarded bike parking users can be analysed. It can be found that young people, between 18 and 24 years old, are the main bike-train users, while people over 65 are less present. Furthermore, users are often frequent travellers (at least once a week) and going to work or school. Of all commuters, 90% travels frequently. Social and recreational purposes are performed on a less frequent basis and are in general performed by older people. Based on these characteristics, five traveller profiles can be identified which each consist of at least 5% of the current bike-train users. These can be labelled as commuters to work, students commuting to school, youth travelling for leisure activities and adults with a leisure purpose, divided into medium and low frequent travellers (respectively between 1 and 3 times a month and less than once a month). Distribution of users towards different types of stations can be made as well. Suburban stations tend to be more used by commuters to work. This also results in more frequent travellers at suburban stations. Social and recreational travellers tend to be more attracted to intercity stations. Also, long-term parking occurs more often at intercity stations.