We recommend including a definition of “daily routes” in the introduction. Since this will make the introduction longer, we also recommend visually highlighting the connection to public transportation:
Please think about the daily routes you currently take using public transportation. Daily routes are all the routes you take as part of your daily routine, such as to work, to go shopping, or to regular leisure activities or private gatherings.
Would you generally be willing to replace at least some of these routes with bike rides?
Information on the aim and purpose of the test:
This question is intended to gauge respondents’ general willingness to replace daily routes made by public transportation with bicycle trips. This includes both situations where respondents are currently considering replacing daily trips by public transportation with bicycle trips, as well as situations where they would like to do so in the future. Even if there are currently barriers, such as distances that are too long, “yes” should be checked if there is a general willingness to do so. Question 7 is asked of all respondents, including those who indicated in Question 2 that they had “never” used public transportation for daily trips in the past four weeks. The reason for this is that the past four weeks could represent an exception. Respondents who generally do not travel by public transportation should answer “I do not travel by public transportation.”
As part of the testing, it should be determined whether the question is understood as intended—that is, that it aims to assess the general willingness to replace trips by public transportation with cycling, even if barriers currently exist. In addition, it should be verified whether only respondents who use public transportation at least occasionally answer the question with “Yes” or “No.”
Findings:
All participants answered the question; five stated that they would generally be willing to replace routes taken by public transportation with bike rides, three said they would not be willing to do so, and three said they would not take public transportation for their daily commutes. One person answered, “I don’t know.”
How do the test persons come up with their answers?
For this question as well, the explanations given by participants who answered “Yes” generally aligned with their responses. They indicated plans to replace routes currently traveled by public transportation with bike rides, or that they had already made such changes, or that they could generally imagine doing so under different circumstances. Even the participant who had difficulty finding an answer to the previous question because they are currently unable to ride a bicycle (TP07) had no trouble providing an answer here.
§ “The first thing that came to mind was my commute to work, which I do by public transportation, even though I’ve been meaning all year to start biking again. It would probably be better for my health if I cycled more often. That’s why ‘yes.’” (TP02)
§ “For example, the train lines are currently closed here, and there’s only a rail replacement service. In that case, I could imagine biking to the next town, where I would normally take the train for one stop.” (TP03)
§ “For one thing, I’m not a big fan of public transportation, and for another, I much prefer riding outside—and the route is really beautiful, too. For me, it’s not so much about it being cheaper, but simply that I enjoy riding my bike. As for the part of the route I take by tram, I actually don’t really like being crammed in with so many people, but that’s just how it is right now.” (TP07)
Three participants (TP01, 09, 11) stated that they would not be willing to replace routes they currently take by public transportation with bike rides. In all three cases, the responses were accurate in that it was not foreseeable that these individuals would replace routes by public transportation with bike rides in the medium term.
TP01 again based their argument solely on the nature of their routes, and at no point during the interview did they indicate any fundamental willingness to ride a bicycle:
“So my commute by public transportation is 40 kilometers on the highway. That’s why I don’t ride my bike. In the city, it would be an option to bring my bike along, but that doesn’t make any sense. If I take my bike on the train just to ride it around town, I might as well just take the tram or walk. I mean, everything’s easy on foot.” (TP01)
One test person consistently overlooked the fact that public transportation was also limited to everyday routes (TP09). As with Question 2, she included a longer train ride to a specialized clinic and long-distance train travel for vacations. This person should have answered “Never” to Question 2 and “I don't use public transportation for my daily commute.” to Question 7. Based on her previous misunderstanding, she logically answered Question 7 with “No,” since her occasional train trips were too far to be replaced by bike rides. The third test person explained that her health was just barely sufficient to take the train, but not to replace those routes with bike rides (TP11).
One participant, who uses both long-distance and local transportation for her daily commutes, thought about the question for a while and ultimately chose “I don’t know” as her answer (TP04), explaining that she could not envision switching to a bicycle for some of her trips clearly enough to answer “Yes.”
“I’m thinking of short distances in the city. I could imagine that, at least in part. The wording implies that not everything has to be replaced, just a part of it. I’d say, ‘I don’t know.’ I don’t know if I could manage it, but at least it’s not out of the question.”
Do only respondents who use public transportation at least occasionally answer the question with “Yes” or “No”?
Two test persons (TP08, 12) had indicated in Question 2 that they had not used public transportation to make their daily routes in the past four weeks. These two test persons immediately selected “I do not make my daily routes using public transportation” as their answer to Question 7.
Test person 09 does use public transportation occasionally, but not for daily trips. She answered the question with “No” instead of "I don't use public transportation for my daily commute". (see previous section).
Conversely (similar to Question 6), there was a case where a test person who had indicated in Question 2 that they used public transportation once a week stated in Question 7 that they did not use public transportation for daily trips (TP06). At first, this person had selected “Yes,” but not because she was willing to replace that distance with a bike ride, but because she could, in fact, cover most of her bike routes by train as well—and didn’t do so because biking was faster. From her perspective, this symbolized a willingness to replace train trips with bike rides. Then they noticed the response option “I don't use public transportation for my daily commute” and changed their answer accordingly. When the interviewer asked why she had not included the weekly trip to visit her daughter—which she had mentioned in Question 2—she explained that she had interpreted the word “everyday” in this question to mean “daily,” and therefore had not considered the weekly trip.
