1. Introduction
The university setting is a non-homogenous community, where individuals from different cultures, backgrounds, lifestyles, incomes, and attitudes come together for a living, education, career, and recreation [
1]. According to Balsas [
2], a university setting developed temporary societies with a complete human scale. This phenomenon led to the regard of the university setting as the ideal example of ‘people place’. While other areas, such as technology parks, ports, hospitals and industrial estates were created, the university campus involved a high concentration of human activity. Therefore, a high number of trips were made from the university area regularly [
3]. Overall, this finding was in line with Shannon et al. [
4], who mentioned that the university setting was a large educational and research institution consisting of community leaders and renowned trip organisers. University students belong to a social class, which often exhibits distinguished and complex travel attitudes [
5]. Provided that the students are free in their campus environment, they had the autonomy of making decisions associated without being significantly controlled by university authorities and parents. This situation indicated that the university setting required special consideration of modal choice and travel demand model.
As a result of the car-oriented environment of universities, issues associated with high dependence of private cars on mobility in a university setting are present. Additionally, private cars are intensively used for small distance trips. To illustrate, Hooftman et al. [
6] stated that approximately 30% of the trips by car was less distant than 3 km in European cities, while 50% of the trips were shorter than 5 km. This evidence indicated the crucial use of private transport in today’s society. Overall, the aforementioned literature recorded the impact of dependence on private transport. Ribeiro et al. [
7] also stated that the use of motorized vehicles led to critical issues in spatial contexts, including energy consumption, global warming, air and noise pollution, inaccessibility, and deterioration of visual and natural conditions. To prove this point, statistics showed that the intensive use of cars contributed to CO
2 emission by approximately 40%, while other populations occurred up to 70% [
8]. In the case of social impact, the use of private motorised vehicles led to a reduction in personal safety and increase in accident risk, mental health problems, and excessive time spent during traffic congestion [
5,
9,
10,
11]. In summary, trips performed via motorised vehicles were identified as among the most negative causes of the university ecological footprint [
12,
13].
Following the aforementioned negative of dependence on motorised vehicles in the university setting, such as motorcycles and cars, most universities worldwide formulated the strategy of creating a sustainable environment in their respective university setting [
14]. The use of active transport, particularly bicycle, was frequently suggested in the previous studies to address the abovementioned problems [
1,
15]. This suggestion was in line with the objective of “Healthy People 2020”, which aimed for the improvement in the percentage of the trips via active transport, such as cycling and walking [
15]. Furthermore, although the bicycle is constantly identified as a ‘poor step-child’ of other alternative modes, this type of transport has developed from ‘forgotten modes’ to emblems of a high quality of life [
2]. In this case, the bicycle is a sustainable mode of transport compared to other alternatives, such as motorcycle and cars for travelling in a university setting. This is because most students in university campuses reside on the campuses, while other students reside within a reasonable cycling distance [
16].
Using a bicycle to commute has countless benefits for the individuals and community. Cycling brings people closer to nature and improves their physical and mental health [
17]. It also significantly lowers the risk for non-communicable disease (NCDs) and fatality [
15,
18,
19,
20]. Similarly, Kelarestaghi et al. [
1], Ribeiro et al. [
7] and Shannon et al. [
4] stated that consistent cycling activity diminishes the chances of developing health problems, such as obesity, asthma, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, atherosclerosis and type-two diabetes. Besides, cycling is an economical means of transport for everyone. Bicycles are a feasible and affordable mode of transportation for a reasonable distance for individuals who could not afford private cars or motorcycles. In the community and safer urban environment contexts, bicycles provide solutions for the lack of parking spaces and reduce the circulating vehicles, thus improving traffic flow and reducing environmental and noise pollution [
10,
15,
21]. Bicycles are the most eco-friendly means of transportation; they do not emit air pollutants and thus are eco-friendly [
1,
8,
17]. Cycling also promotes the principles of urban mobility [
22].
Despite the advantages of cycling, most trips on university campuses, especially in Malaysian universities, were made using motorised vehicles [
16,
23,
24]. According to Jalalkamali et al. [
23], the rate of bicycle usage in Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) is low due to weather constraints and the topography of the university campus. Zainal et al. [
16] concurred that the weather and topography factors influence the low rate of bicycle use on the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) main campus. The low rate of bicycle use is also due to the lack of cycling facilities, including bicycle lanes and parking [
16].
This research was conducted to investigate the factors leading to the behavioural intention of students to encourage the use of sustainable modes of transport such as bicycle as an alternative mode to commute in a university setting. This research aimed to identify the answer to particular research questions, namely (i) what are the factors of the student’s willingness to cycle in a university setting? and (ii) what are the measures to promote the use of the bicycle in the context of the university setting? To answer these questions, the theory of planned behaviour was modified using additional perceived barrier and habit constructs. Following that, the structural equation model (SEM) was developed using the survey data from 422 individuals consisting of university students. The primary campus Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Malaysia (Bangi Campus) was the study area selected to apply the proposed method. The results of this study facilitated the planners and advocates in designing and successfully adopting interventions or promotional campaigns for the enhancement of bicycle usage in the university setting.
This section of the article is followed by
Section 2, which illustrates the literature review and hypothesis formulation.
Section 3 presents a discussion of the methodology applied in this study. Next,
Section 4 presents the findings, followed by discussion of the findings and policy implementation in
Section 5. This article ends with a conclusion in
Section 6.
5. Discussions and Policy Implementations
The selection of travel mode is the most frequently debated issue in the transportation literature. The decision to choose the travel mode is subjective and mainly based on the individual, purpose of the trip, and type of transport among others. Several efforts were made by many researchers, engineers, and policymakers in this domain to examine the elements influencing the individuals’ decision regarding the preferred travel mode, especially public transport including buses and rail transit [
26,
27,
28,
81,
82,
83,
84,
85]. As a result of the emphasis on public transport, the study related to the most sustainable modes of transport, such as bicycle, gained less attention among the key players in this field (e.g., researchers, engineers, and policymakers). The bicycle was undoubtedly known as the “forgotten” mode of transport, as mentioned by Balsas [
2]. The performance of the bicycle could not be compared to other modes of transport, which offer a comfortable, faster, and luxurious experience during the journey. However, the bicycle has significant individual, social, and environmental impacts, such as improving body health and saving journey time and cost for a reasonable cycling distance trip, and reducing congestion, parking demand, and air and noise pollution [
17].
The current research was performed to investigate the student’s willingness to use a bicycle in a university setting by modifying Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behaviour [
32]. The authors of the current study modified the novel TPB model by incorporating two new constructs, namely perceived barrier and habit. This study formulated the strategy of promoting the use of the bicycle in a university setting to reduce the dependence on motorised transport for commuting as well as to create a green and sustainable campus environment.
Based on the results presented in the previous section, the model in this research received support and sufficiently fit in predicting the student’s intention for the subject matters. The current research recorded that the suggested model led to 73% of the variance elaborated on the case of behavioural intention to use bicycle in a university setting. Furthermore, almost all the hypotheses except Hypothesis 5 were supported. It was indicated from the results that the student’s intention to cycle in a university setting was influenced by three primary attitudinal constructs, such as individual attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. Interestingly, this study recorded that attitude had the strongest influence on the willingness to use the bicycle in a university setting, while the subjective norms had the least influence. In this research, the low association between subjective norms and behavioural intention indicated that students were capable of independent decision making whether to use the bicycle to commute in a university setting. In this case, less advice was required from their families, lecturers, and friends. This result was in line with the result by Ajzen and Driver [
64], who reported that the individuals’ intention towards recreation activities was mainly influenced by attitude, while the subjective norms had the minimum contribution to the development of individual intention. Additionally, the research conducted in Germany [
86] and Canada [
87] recorded that attitude construct had the highest impact on the reduction in dependence on car use, while subjective norms had the minimum to no impact. Hsiao and Yang [
27] reported similar findings in their recent study, where the attitude was the major influential factor of students’ willingness to take the High-Speed Rail (HSR) for a long-distance trip, while the subjective norms had the least contribution to the subject matters. In recent studies, the role of subjective norms in motivating the individuals’ behaviour intention was found to have a low impact on their willingness to use the Park and Ride service [
25]. Besides, the case study of low-cost airlines [
28] and HSR [
26] recorded that this construct did not have a significant role.
This study also found that perceived barriers could indirectly alter individual intentions, such as the intentions of cycling in a university setting through attitude, perceived behavioural control, and habit. As shown in
Figure 3, the perceived barrier construct had a strong influence on habit and individual attitude. Similarly, Sousa et al. [
36] recorded that these factors could alter the individuals’ attitude in their decision on the selection of travel mode. In this study, perceived barriers including lack of cycling facilities, extreme weather conditions (e.g., heavy rain, hot and humid environment), and the unsuitable types of topography among others weakened individuals’ attitude towards the bicycle as a transport mode [
36,
43,
48]. This situation led to weaker intention to cycling in a university setting. Moreover, habit had an indirect significant impact on student’s willingness to use the bicycle through attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. It was indicated that the low willingness to cycle in a university setting may be attributed from the negative attitude towards cycling activity, the impact of important parties (e.g., parents, lecturers, and friends), and perceptive chances to use the bicycle, which were affected by the habit of using the bicycle. The effect of habit was found to have mutual characteristics with the results in previous studies regarding the individual’s intention to use bicycle for commuting [
59,
60,
61].
The findings of this study are beneficial in formulating effective measures and policies that promote cycling in a university setting. The critical factor in the effort to increase the intention of university students to use bicycles is identifying the perceived barrier for the student intention to cycle on the university campus and eliminating the perceived barriers. Weather is a critical factor for the low student intention to cycle on campus. Located in Southern Asia, Malaysia is hot, humid and receives rain throughout the year. Besides the topography of the university campus, the factors identified as the key barriers to cycling on campus are not owning a bicycle and inadequate cycling facilities that ensure safe cycling. These findings are similar to Nkurunziza et al. [
35], who proposed that university administrators allocate a budget to provide cycling facilities on university setting and ensure a safe cycling environment for the students. Because of the hot weather and heavy rain, the university administrator should consider constructing bicycle lanes with a roof or modifying the existing road. It is essential to provide plenty of secure bicycle racks and bicycle parking, particularly at the faculty (classroom) and residential areas, to improve the habit and attitude towards cycling and the students’ intention to cycle.
The limitation of cycling in Southern Asia countries was the exposure to unpredictable and extreme weather, which led to discomfort among the students after cycling. This was a more crucial case when the students cycle to attend class. Therefore, the relevant should focus on providing facilities for showering and changing rooms for commuters. Meanwhile, providing rental or dockless bicycle-sharing service was another method of promoting the use of the bicycle, especially for individuals who do not own a bicycle. The on-campus bike repair service centre was one of the facilities, which should be provided by the university authority to encourage cycling among the campus committee. Overall, these suggested measures were also known as physical policies [
26]. When the university authority took an initiative of offering the aforementioned measures and physical policies, the attitude of students to cycle would convince them regarding the benefits of cycling. Subsequently, the willingness of students to cycle in a university setting would be improved. These strategic measures were frequently suggested in the previous studies to promote the use of the bicycle in a university setting [
1,
15,
16].
According to Parkin et al. [
88] and Nkurunziza et al. [
35], providing the cycling infrastructure is insufficient to create a modal development in bicycle use. Previous works have shown that personal barriers lead to the weak intention to cycle [
35,
89]. Specifically, individuals believe that they are not familiar with the use of the bicycle, while others regard it as a travel mode only for the poor. An effective way to change the attitude towards bicycle use is changing the bicycling culture and enhancing the image of cycling through educational policy. According to previous research, awareness campaigns are among the educational policies that could increase the intention to use various travel modes, such as low-cost airline service [
28] and high-speed rail [
26,
27]. Universities should use communication channels, such as posters, television, social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others) and newspapers, to enhance the image of cycling and change student attitude and behaviour towards cycling. According to Borhan et al. [
28], the awareness campaign through the mass media could improve comprehension of the message conveyed to the target audience. Stead et al. [
90] reported a success story associated with a mass media campaign to reduce speeding on Scotland’s road. According to Linaki et al. [
17], providing proper road safety and education to the riders and other road users, such as pedestrians and drivers, could improve safety during cycling and reduce the risk of accidents. Other examples of educational policies are courses on cycling safety, bicycle maintenance and confident cycling. These courses could increase the image of cycling and change people’s attitude and behaviour towards bicycling and increase the acceptance of the benefits of cycling. As the attitude towards cycling improves, there will be voluntary changes in travel behaviour towards bicycle use.
Instead of physical and educational policies, economic policy was another type of employed to promote the use of the bicycle in a university setting. In this type of policy, the ‘push and pull’ strategy was adopted, in which the ‘push’ strategy focused on the methods of controlling the use of cars in a university setting by introducing full-cost parking charge, park and ride policies, car-free zone, and forgoing with expansion of the car parking project in the campus area. Furthermore, the taxation of fuel and cars was considered a promising measure to reduce the dependence on motorised vehicles and promotion of bicycle use [
84,
91]. On the contrary, the ‘pull’ strategy, such as the omission of the bicycle import tax, was another method of ensuring the public own and choose the bicycle as a travel alternative for short (reasonable) distance trip. In respect of the bicycle import tax in Malaysia, the import duty rate for bicycles on 1 January 2019 was 15%. The bicycle import tax could become a burden for the public in buying the bicycle, which would also affect their perception towards the bicycle. Therefore, the strategy associated with the decrease or omission of bicycle import tax would enhance the possibility of commuting by bicycle among the general public and the university community. On the other hand, the financial incentives were offered to the individuals committed to commuting by bicycle around the university campus, including the ‘pull’ strategy to improve the perception of students towards cycling around the campus. In summary, the ‘push and pull’ strategies had a specific contribution towards the agenda to reduce the dependence on motorised transport and promote the use of the bicycle as a sustainable travel mode. However, adequate public support was a challenge in the implementation of the ‘push’ methods [
92]. This finding was in line with the findings from the study of the suitability of diverse transport policy measures, which reported that individuals had a higher possibility to accept the positive (pull) strategies compared to the negative (push) strategies [
93].
Concerning other measures implemented to gain the intention of the students regarding bicycle use in a university setting, the university authority should establish the bicycle advisory community on the campus. Subsequently, the student’s needs related to the cycling activity in the campus would be prioritised. This community could play a role as a channel to share opinions, complaints, and suggestions related to cycling in a university setting. Additionally, the university management team could easily prioritise and cater to their needs, which led to an improvement in the users’ attitude, and intention towards bicycle use in a university setting.
In summary, promoting the use of the bicycle in a university setting was not the sole responsibility of one party. Based on the discussion in this study, the university management team, students, important references (e.g., parents, spouses, lecturers and friends), the government, and the local authority should cooperate to change the culture and attitude towards bicycle use among the students in a university setting. These suggested physical, educational, and economic policies could improve the student’s habit, attitude, and perceived behavioural control related to the use of the bicycle in a university setting. These improvements would also change the perception regarding the choice of bicycle as a travel mode in a university setting. Overall, these initiatives contributed to the development of a green and sustainable environment of the university campus.