Introduction

Cycling contributes to maintaining and improving physical activity and public health. Improvement of cycling behavior has been paid much attention in the developed countries, but it has received less attention in the developing nations. Shiraz in Iran, currently has a partial cycling network which has been unsuccessful and is rarely used for cycling. This research explored and classified the features and their inclusive factors in relation to cycling behavior and examined their impact on its improvement.

Methods

Delphi study was applied to revise and finalize the features and factors related to cycling behavior. Then, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to give a weighting to these features and their related factors.

Results

Not surprisingly, Physical Infrastructure of Cycling Network proved to be the most important feature in regards to cycling behavior (22.3% of the total criteria). This feature was followed by Traffic Safety along the Cycling Network (13.1%), Density, Land uses and Accessibility (12.1%) and Personal Security along the Cycling Network (10.2%). In addition, “appropriate depth of view along the cycling network” emerged as the most important factor (sub-criteria) in relation to cycling behavior (5.4% of the total sub-criteria).

Conclusions

Present research supports the findings of previous studies regarding the contribution of the majority of the identified features and their related factors towards the improvement of cycling behavior. Beside, findings of this research as its novelties are:1) Certain factors implying on how to expand the current cycling network; 2) Emerging visibility and depth of view as the important factor for improvement of cycling behavior; 3) Relative certain cultural factors. The features and factors recognized in this research could be applied by associated authorities to expand the current cycling network as well as improve cycling behavior in this context.