Using environmental audits and photo-journeys to compare objective attributes and bicyclists’ perceptions of bicycle routes

Background Bicycling is known to have many health benefits. For this reason, transport planners and public health officials in Canada increasingly aim to encourage bicycling for transport. On- and off-street infrastructure is often implemented to facilitate bicycling and planners rely on a range of tools for informing the design of the network of facilities. This mixed methods study compares objectively measured attributes and bicyclists’ perceptions of the built environment along inferred bicycle routes in Hamilton, Ontario. Methods Environmental audits were conducted along six bicycle routes in Hamilton to document the attributes that might support or hinder bicycling. The routes were inferred based on the output of a model of bicycling flows. Bicyclists, 9 male and 5 female, then participated in semi-structured interviews where a form of photo elicitation, which we call photo-journeys, was used to explore their perceptions and preferences of the routes. Interview data were analyzed using both inductive and deductive thematic analysis based on the categories of the audit instrument. Results Bicyclists prefer routes that have dedicated bicycle infrastructure, or residential streets with low volumes of traffic even if they lack infrastructure. They dislike routes with busy arterial roads or that lack bicycle infrastructure. Their experiences and knowledge of bicycling in a city transitioning to be more bicycle-friendly revealed preferences that can help to improve existing infrastructure and bicycle routes, which may also help to reduce barriers for non-bicyclists. Conclusions Photo-journeys are an innovative and practical approach to explore perceptions of regular bicyclists, which can be leveraged to inform policies and interventions to make bicycling routes and infrastructure safer and more attractive. Transport planners in developing cycling cities should pay attention to both the objective attributes of the built environment and how they are perceived by the public.