Is the bicycle primarily a common mode of transport or rather a leisure item? Previous research found an increasing bicycle use in Germany; however details on the development of bicycle use intensities, the stability of bicycle mode choice and thus the future potentials of additional cycle use are still open issues. We analyzed changes in cycle use intensity and intrapersonal variation of mode choice in Germany by examining mobility behavior data covering a longitudinal perspective over 15 years as well as the mobility behavior of one week and the intrapersonal variation between two years. These three relevant layers of information allow a detailed evaluation of bicycle use profiles. We investigated the temporal development of socio-demographic structures and bicycle mobility patterns in five pre-clustered cycle intensity groups. In addition, the panel characteristics of the data allow an estimation of stability in the decision to use the bicycle between survey weeks in consecutive years. The results indicate increases in diversified use patterns of cycling. The group of heavy users, especially bicycle commuters, increases, but also their daily usage intensity grows. Thus, we show how more cyclists with more cycling increase the popularity of the bicycle in Germany.
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