About this project

This research project is studying how often people bicycle, how far, long, and fast or slow they bicycle, and where they bicycle. The study is being conducted with Portland area adults. The results of this study will be used to understand how various factors influence people's decisions on whether and where to bicycle, including where they live, the presence of bike lanes and paths, and other factors. The first phase of the project included a random phone survey of adults in the Portland , Oregon region. Some of the results from that survey are available here. The second phase of the project involves using global positioning system (GPS) devices on people's bicycles to accurately record where and when they ride their bicycle.

The principal investigator for this project is Jennifer Dill, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Urban Studies and Planning.
The project is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's (RWJF) Active Living Research program.

Project Update (July 9, 2007)

We've now had about 100 people participate in the first GPS phase of the project. They've made nearly 1,500 bike trips over the seven days each person had the GPS device.

Most of those participants volunteered after hearing about the project through the Oregonian and various websites and email lists in the spring. Each person that contacted was asked to complete an on-line survey similar to the phone survey we conducted in the first part of the project. From over 400 people, we randomly selected about 130 to participate. We're winding up this month with those participants, as the RWJF funding for the project is nearing the end. We'll start analyzing that data next month. We now have additional funding from the Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium (OTREC) to gather data from additional bicyclists over the next few months. For this next phase, we need people who are not regular cyclists, e.g. people who ride 1-3 days per week. As you might imagine, most of those first 400+ people are very active, regular cyclists. We'll go back to the 400 to see if we missed any occasional cyclists and ask them to participate. In addition, if you think you fit the bill, or know someone who does, read below.

What have we learned so far? It's too soon to start analyzing the data, but we have learned a bit about the technology we're using -- which was one of the research objectives. We've been using an off-the-shelf GPS/PDA device manufactured by Garmin, the iQue. It's intended for in-car navigation. We've had a few units experience problems with the bumps of the road. One advantage of the unit was that it allowed us to program an interface with participants to ask them the trip purpose and weather before each bike trip. Other types of GPS devices don't allow for this. The trade-off is a lack of durability and short battery life. In a few weeks we're going to get a batch of new GPS devices manufactured specifically for travel-related research that we're going to test. They're much smaller, but won't allow for any user interface. We'll test them to see if they work for this project and, if so, start using them in August.

Interested in participating?

In the next phase of the project, we're particularly interesting in having people participate who bicycle less than four days a week. We want adults of all ages, both men and women. In addition:

•  We are only including adults (18 and over) living within the urban growth boundary of the Portland, OR region (not WA for now).

•  We are are not including bike messengers or other people who ride their bike for a living.

•  We only would want one participant per household.

•  It will not matter whether you ride the same routes or go to the same places every day or not. We're trying to measure people's actual behavior, whatever that is.

If you are interested, send an e-mail to bikegps@pdx.edu with your name and mailing address and we'll send you some additional information.

Are you already participating?

Click here to access the initial survey. This only applies to people who did not participate in the phone survey.
Have your log-in and password information sent in the mail handy.

Click here to see some options for placing the GPS/PDA on your bike.

Click here if we have already collected your GPS data, to view your trip maps and answer some questions.
Have your log-in and password information sent in the mail handy.

Something else? E-mail your research team member or bikegps@pdx.edu .