How does harassment alter cycling satisfaction? Insights from London

Cycling satisfaction is a key factor in increasing cycling mode share, particularly in low-cycling contexts such as England. Satisfaction is subjective and shaped by both observable conditions and unobserved psychological factors. One important but understudied factor is harassment, which can take many forms (e.g., verbal, physical, sexual, racial, or identity-based) and may strongly influence cyclists’ experiences. This study develops a quantitative framework to examine how harassment affects cycling satisfaction through a latent variable representing harassment-related experiences, using survey data from 1,525 cyclists in London. Results show that cyclists who feel stressed, unsafe, or threatened are significantly more likely to report dissatisfaction, even after controlling for socio-demographic factors. Harassment-related perceptions are strongly associated with traffic exposure, lighting conditions, and accumulated near-miss or collision experiences. These findings demonstrate that cycling satisfaction is significantly associated with harassment-related perceptions and highlight the need to incorporate harassment-sensitive measures into cycling level-of-service evaluations.