Smart Connected Bicycles: User Acceptance and Experience, Willingness to Pay and Road Safety Implications

This thesis evaluates the impacts of smart connected bicycles on users’ acceptance, preferences, and willingness to pay. In addition, users’ experience with a smart connected bike prototype is evaluated through a field experiment. A smart connected bicycle is an e-bike integrated with sensors and various systems, such as telecommunication technologies, which is connected to the urban infrastructure through wireless technologies to increase cyclist’s safety and comfort. Therefore, fulfilling its overarching aim, this thesis examines bicycle technologies affecting cyclist safety and investigates factors that influence users’ preferences for accepting smart bicycle technologies across different European countries. It also investigates users’ preferences for individual technologies and estimates willingness to pay values for these technologies in Europe and in the Netherlands. Individuals' perceived safety, perceptions and riding behaviour changes are also measured in practice with the use of a specific set of smart bicycle technologies through field trials in the Netherlands.
In summary, this thesis provides new insights into smart bicycle technologies and user acceptance by employing different behavioural and discrete choice models. Data from five European countries and field experiment in Enschede were collected and analysed to examine expected and experienced aspects regarding the influence of smart bicycle technologies on users’ preferences and riding behaviour changes. In addition, this thesis investigates how individuals from different countries with different cycling cultures perceive smart bicycle technologies and examines the impact of these factors on users’ preferences. It distinguishes individuals based on their preferences for smart bicycle technologies and accounts for their heterogeneity on big and small geographical scales. The findings of this research serve multiple insights and provide several recommendations for practical (policymakers, governments, bicycle manufacturers) as well as theoretical (further research) implications.