Evaluation of the bikeability of a Greek city: Case study "City of Volos"

Abstract

Driving a bike in a Greek city is not an easy case. There are no bicycle facilities available and the bicyclists and the car drivers are not used to each other in mixed traffic situations. The primary goal of the study was the evaluation of the road infrastructure and the ability of the bicyclists to bike safely in the city of Volos. The secondary goal of the study is the finding of the main problems of the bicycles in the city, the level of the bicycle use and the purpose of the bicyclists' daily trips. The study took place in November 2008. 100 bicyclists participated in the study and answered a questionnaire of 8 questions, which consisted of more sub questions. 38 of the participants were students in the University of Thessaly and the rest citizens of the city. The bicyclists were of different age, sex and profession, in order to have a more independent sample. The questions concerned about the road safety of the bicyclists both in bikeways and in rest of the road network, the road safety level on the intersections' crossing, the behavior of the car drivers to the bicyclists, the behavior and the safety measures of the bicyclists, the amount of the daily bike trips and their destination. Using a rating scale from 1 to 6, with 1 considering the worst and 6 the best grade, in the first 5 of the 8 questions of each questionnaire, the bicyclists put a grade to each question. Finally, calculating the summary of each questionnaire and the average of the whole sample, with a rating scale of 5 to 30, with 5 considering the worst and 30 the best road environment, we evaluated the bikeability level of the city.