Factors Preventing Bicycling Near Home, By Race/ethnicity And Education

About 1% of US adults report bicycling for transportation. Marginalized racial/ethnic groups and those with less education report less bicycling than White and more educated groups. Little is known about how environmental, infrastructural, and individual factors that prevent bicycling differ across these groups. PURPOSE: To describe prevalence and patterns, by race/ethnicity and education, in factors preventing near-home bicycling among US adults. METHODS: We analyzed national data from the 2022 SummerStyles survey. Adults (n=3,918) were asked to indicate factors preventing them from regularly bicycling to places within a 10-minute ride of where they live (i.e., “near home”), or choose “None of the above” (Table). We estimated weighted prevalence for each factor overall and by race/ethnicity and education level. We identified racial and ethnic differences using pairwise t-tests and education-related trends using orthogonal polynomial contrasts. RESULTS: Prevalence differed by race/ethnicity, with more White respondents reporting environmental and infrastructural factors such as weather and having no places near home to bicycle to. Trends by education level were common for individual factors. Respondents with higher education levels reported lower prevalence of preferring driving, not liking bicycling, and perceived physical fitness as factors preventing bicycling, but higher prevalence of inconvenience. Other trends by education level existed for some environmental and infrastructural factors (i.e., respondents with higher education levels reported higher prevalence of cold/icy, unsafe, and places absent or poorly maintained). Table 1. - Prevalence of Factors Preventing Regular Bicycling to Places Near Home, by Factor Type and With Differences by Race/Ethnicity and Trends by Education Levela, 2022 SummerStyles (n=3,918) Factor Type Factorb Overall Prevalence % (95% CI) Differences by race/ethnicityc Trend by higher education leveld Environmental Hot/humid 18.5 (17.0, 20.0) W, H > A -- Unsafe 15.6 (14.3, 17.1) -- Increasing Cold/icy 6.8 (5.9, 7.7) W > H Increasing Unpleasant/unhealthy 4.0 (3.3, 4.9) -- -- Infrastructural Lack of equipment 29.4 (27.6, 31.1) -- -- No places near home to bicycle to 12.9 (11.7, 14.2) W > B, H, A -- Places absent or poorly maintained 12.4 (11.1, 13.7) -- Increasing Individual Don’t like bicycling 16.4 (15.0, 17.8) -- Decreasing Prefer driving 15.8 (14.5, 17.3) -- Decreasing Inconvenient 12.8 (11.6, 14.2) -- Increasing Physical fitness 9.4 (8.4, 10.5) -- Decreasing Don’t know how to ride a bike 4.6 (3.8, 5.5) -- -- None of the above 19.9 (18.4, 21.5) B > W -- CONCLUSION: Different factors may prevent near-home bicycling among those with different races/ethnicities or education levels. Policies or interventions that address environmental, infrastructural, and individual factors that account for these differences may support equitable bicycling opportunities.