Exploring within-and-between differences in cycling travel time: A comparative study of İstanbul, Braga, and Tallinn

Responding to climate change and sustainability goals, many cities and countries have renewed efforts to upgrade active transportation infrastructure, such as cycling. Supportive built environment conditions, such as dedicated cycling lanes, safe intersections, and low-traffic streetsare a necessary prerequisite to promote cycling and so is the understanding of behavioral variations in travel, with travel time being particularly crucial. Although travel time and value of travel time has been widely studied in transportation research cycling travel time is less explored, particularly how they vary across cities. Moreover, external factors such as wind speed and bike type (e.g., e-bike vs. conventional bike) can significantly influence cycling travel time. This study addresses these gaps by examining the effects of trip characteristics and socio-demographic factors on cycling travel time across three European cities: Tallinn, Braga, and Istanbulwhich differ in cultural and urban contexts but have each recently initiated policies to foster cycling. Using a Latent Class Accelerated Failure Time (LCAFT) model, the analysis reveals that, as expected, distance consistently increases travel time and e-bikes have low to significant effects. However, the influence of trip purpose and bike type varies depending on socio-demographic and cultural contexts. For instance, in Tallinn and Braga, age and gender significantly shape travel time, whereas in Istanbul, age and educational attainment are more influential. These findings highlight the importance of incorporating contextual and demographic differences when assessing cycling behavior across diverse urban settings.