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Tuesday, 10 June 2008 18:19 |
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Mike Lydon at Planetizen wrote an excellent article on bicyclists and the different types of cyclist that planners must consider when planning... well when planning anything, really. I find it interesting the way he breaks cyclists down into three groups: Advanced Bicyclists, Intermediate Bicyclists, and Beginner Bicyclists, each with their own needs, expectations, and behaviors. There seems to be an interesting parallel with a concept from marketing, the adoption/innovation curve, when he states:
In general...striping a network of bicycle lanes or adding "Share the Road" signs is simply not enough to create a complete system for all three user types. Thus, a much more fine-grained approach is needed in bicycle planning, one that will help interested bicyclists evolve "up the ladder."
The Innovation/Adoption curve is the theory that marketing to the innovators and early adoptors is the best (perhaps the only) way that what you're selling will eventually become "cool" to the majority of people, but Lydon suggests that promoting cycling may be more a matter of turning Beginners into more advance bicyclists.
Just as a thought experiment, suppose that cycling behavior follows the same patterns as other behaviors that marketers have analyzed. If the goal were to get "the masses" to practice safer and more frequent bicycle riding, then how would you market cycling?
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