What determines university student’s willingness to pay for bikeways?

Inadequate infrastructure is recognized as an important barrier to cycling; therefore, improvements in the provision of bicycle facilities, such as bikeways, are frequently associated with increments in bicycle use. However, the overall impact of better facilities may vary with socio-demographic and attitudinal characteristics of potential cyclists. Using a sample of university students in the city of Barranquilla, Colombia, this paper examines the role that these characteristics have on prospective bicyclists’ monetary valuation of this kind of infrastructure, measured as the willingness to pay (WTP) for a dedicated bikeway. Two attitudinal factors: environmental friendliness and Pro-Car attitude were integrated into the WTP model as latent variables (LV), and address the question of whether these factors help to better explain the WTP. It was found that including the LVs did not add significant explanatory power to the WTP model. The results suggest that travel distance, expenditure, the undergraduate program and the current mode of transport are the most important variables influencing the WTP of university students for a bikeway.