The Residents’ Take on using Bicycles in the Urban Environment: The Case of the City of Alexandroupolis, Greece

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Abstract: This paper has recorded the views of the residents of the city of Alexandroupolis, by means of a questionnaire, concerning bicycle use as a means for their transportation. The study determined the suitability level of the city for cycling, particularly the existence of the necessary infrastructure and the appropriate education and behavior of cyclists and drivers of other vehicles. According to this research, 82.8% of residents view bicycle use positively and consider that the city of Alexandroupolis is absolutely (18.5%) and very (27%) appropriate for using the bicycle as a means of transportation. However, only a small percentage of residents use the bicycle as their means of transportation (15.3% use it rarely and 29.8% never use it), although they suggest that bicycles are a very cheap or cheap (20% and 39.3% respectively) means of transport. While Αlexandroupolis is a flat and sea-side city, and thus is suited for cycling, its infrastructure is borderline fair (49.5% mediocre, 26% good and 16.8% poor) for cyclists, whose behavior is positively impacted (68.5%) by whether their fellow residents cycle. However, 22% of residents state that the use of a motor vehicle is always necessary, irrespective of the distance to be covered. Residents claim that drivers of other vehicles respect cyclists on the road rarely to sometimes (28.3% and 29.8% respectively), making the use of bicycles marginally safe for minors (37.8%). According to the residents of Alexandroupolis, young cyclists adhere to the highway code sometimes and rarely (33.5% and 29.5% respectively), while the same is also true of adult cyclists (43.3% of those asked believe that adult cyclists adhere to the code sometimes, while 23.3% believe that this is rare).

WSEAS Transactions on Environment and Development, ISSN / E-ISSN: 1790-5079 / 2224-3496, Volume 15, 2019, Art. #23

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Paraskevi Karanikola, Stilianos Tampakis, Lemonia Matzaraki, Antonios Tampakis, "The Residents’ Take on using Bicycles in the Urban Environment: The Case of the City of Alexandroupolis, Greece," WSEAS Transactions on Environment and Development, vol. 15, pp. 204-212, 2019, DOI:
Paraskevi Karanikola, Stilianos Tampakis, Lemonia Matzaraki, Antonios Tampakis. The Residents’ Take on using Bicycles in the Urban Environment: The Case of the City of Alexandroupolis, Greece. WSEAS Transactions on Environment and Development. 2019;15:204-212.
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