Travel Time Differences between Cargo Cycles and Cars in Commercial Transport Operations

Abstract

Cargo cycles are gaining more interest among commercial users from different business sectors, and they compete with cars in urban commercial transport. Though many studies show the potential of cargo cycles, there is still a reluctance to deploy them. One possible reason for this is the lack of knowledge regarding their suitability in relation to travel time. Therefore, this study aims to explore cargo cycles’ travel time performance by quantifying the travel time differences between them and conventional vehicles for commercial trips. The authors compare real-life trip data from cargo cycles with Google’s routed data for cars. By doing this, the authors explore the factors affecting the travel time difference and propose a model to estimate this difference. The attributes for the model were selected keeping in mind the ease of obtaining values for the variables. Results indicate cycling trip distance to be the most significant variable. The study shows that expected travel time difference for trips with distances between 0 and 20 km (12.4 mi) ranges from -5 min (cargo cycle 5 min faster) to 40 min with a median of 6 min. This value can decrease if users take the optimal cycling route and the traffic conditions are worse for cars. Although what is an acceptable amount of travel time difference depends on the user, practitioners can be certain of the travel time difference they can expect, which enables them to assess the suitability of cargo cycles for their commercial operations.