Hurt the pocket or the groin? : studying the perceived facilitators and barriers to cycling of University of Malta students

Abstract

Private car use dwarfs any other transport mode in use within the Maltese Islands creating issues in public health and environmental concerns. More so cycling in Malta is still regarded as a fringe transport mode, with less than 3 % of University of Malta (UOM) students being bicycle commuters. The main aim of this study is to better understand the forces acting upon the University of Malta student body that have led to an alarmingly low number of student bicycle commuters. This involves an investigation into the perceived barriers and facilitators to cycling of University of Malta students, with special focus on how these perceptions vary across space on the densely populated, Maltese urban landscape. Primary data was collected via a close ended, multiple choice, online questionnaire consisting of 150 respondents. Quantitative data analysis consisted of various statistical tests carried out through IBM SPSS. Secondary data was collected from a variety of sources including The Green Travel Plan (GTP) provided by the Institute for Climate Change and Sustainable Development, The National Statistics Office (NSO) and Transport Malta (TM). Gender, poor cycling infrastructure, limited cycling services at UOM, the Maltese physical environment, habitual living, over complicated bicycle sharing schemes and dangerous driving by motorists were all perceived to be barriers to cycling for non-riders and occasional riders. Agreement between non-riders, occasional riders and regular riders was observed only in the barriers denoting poor cycling infrastructure and services on Maltese roads. The remaining aforementioned barriers were observed as being over exaggerated misconceptions of the actual barriers experienced by active cyclists. Non-riders were found to be well aware of the potential facilitators to cycling, where no misconceptions were observed. Perceptions of barriers and facilitators to cycling, as well as cycling propensity were all observed to exist without any special variance across the Maltese urban landscape.