What type of person is at different stages of change for cycling? A case study of Montreal

• Enhances SSBC model by integrating TPB variables pertaining to cycling behavior. • Challenges the commonly understood forward progressive cycling stages. • Differentiates between choice and necessity in cycling motivation stages. • Recommends policies for current cyclists to prevent them from a return to car use. • Cycling infrastructure explains postaction stage, controlling for cycling RSS”. Promoting cycling for daily transport has significant health, equity, and environmental benefits. To understand what factors influence individuals’ cycling motivational stages, our study pursued two main objectives: 1) Enhancing the Stage Model of Self-Regulated Behavioral Change (SSBC) by integrating it with the psychological mechanisms of the TPB, and 2) Examining the impacts of perceived cycling motivators and barriers, cycling and general attitudes, and sociodemographics on cycling motivational stage. Using an online survey of the adult population (n = 1055) in Montreal, Canada, a multivariate analysis reveals meaningful connections between behaviour stages and perceived barriers and attitudes toward cycling. Those in the lowest stage exhibit lower internal motivation and express concerns about the lack of convenience, physical effort, and slowness associated with cycling. Furthermore, the results challenge the common understanding that people always progress through the stages with increasingly positive attitudes and more cycling. Specifically, our findings highlight the need to distinguish between people who cycle by choice and those who do so out of necessity (i.e., captive riders) when categorizing travelers into action and post-action stages. This is important due to the risk of people in the “captive action stage” going back to using cars if barriers are reduced. This suggests that intervention policies should also focus on current cyclists, not just non-cyclists of the preaction stages. This nuanced understanding can inform more effective and targeted interventions for promoting cycling. Finally, objective characteristics of cycling infrastructure retains significance in explaining who belongs to the postaction stage for cycling, even after controlling for residential self-selection.