Key events and their effects on cycling behaviour in Dar-es-Salaam : abstract + powerpoint

The paper explores key events and investigates their effects on cycling behaviour in the city of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. The objective of the study is to identify specific key events during a person’s life course with a significant effect on change of travel behaviour towards cycling in relation to stage of change. Stage of change is a key construct of the transtheoretical model of behaviour change that defines behavioural readiness (intentions and actions) into six distinct categories (i.e. pre-contemplation, contemplation, prepared for action, action, maintenance, and relapse). By using a binary logistic regression model, it was possible to identify the key events that influenced change of travel behaviour among 450 daily commuters in different stages of change of cycling behaviour. Model results have shown that income generation, poor daladala (public transport) service, and harsh behaviour of daladala operators have a significant impact on changing to maintenance stage. After marriage, after child birth, past incidence of car accident on bicycle, feel shame on bicycle, fear of losing virginity among girls and shifting from small towns to Dar-es-Salaam where cars are the common mode of travel, have a significant impact on cycling especially moving from maintenance to relapse stage of cycling behaviour.