Effect of Bike Lane Infrastructure Improvements on Ridership in One New Orleans Neighborhood

Abstract

Background Incorporating cycling into daily life is one way to increase physical activity. Purpose This study examined the impact of building new bike lanes in New Orleans to determine whether more people were cycling on the street and with the flow of traffic after bike lanes were built. Methods Through direct observation of one intervention and two adjacent streets, observers counted cyclists riding on the street and sidewalk, with and against traffic, before and after installation of the lanes. Data were tallied separately for adults, children, males, females, and by race for each location.Results There was an increase in cyclists on all three streets after the installation of the bike lanes, with the largest increase on the street with the new lane. Additionally, the proportion of riders cycling with traffic increased after the lanes were striped. Conclusions Bike lanes can have a positive impact in creating a healthy neighborhood.

Healthy Urban Environments for Children and Young People: A Systematic Review of Intervention Studies

“…Fifteen primary studies (Boarnet et al, 2005a(Boarnet et al, , 2005bBuliung et al, 2011;Deehr and Shumann, 2009;Fitzhugh et al, 2010;Garrard and Crawford, 2010;Hinckson and Badland, 2011;Mammen et al, 2014aMammen et al, , 2014bMcDonald et al, 2013;Morrison et al, 2004;Moudon and Stewart, 2012;Parker et al, 2013;Wen et al, 2008) in relation to 12 interventions were identified which aimed to increase the level of active travel amongst children and young people.…”

“…Primary studies in relation to single component interventions included the addition of a bike lane in an urban area (Parker et al, 2013), retrofitting an urban greenway/ trail (Fitzhugh et al, 2010), and introduction of a traffic calming scheme (Morrison et al, 2004).…”

“…The risk of bias due to confounding was considered serious in nine of the studies (Boarnet et al, 2005a(Boarnet et al, , 2005bBuliung et al, 2009;Deehr and Shumann, 2009;Fitzhugh et al, 2010;Garrard and Crawford, 2010;Morrison et al, 2004;Moudon and Stewart, 2012;Parker et al, 2013). The risk of bias due to selection of participants (Boarnet et al, 2005a(Boarnet et al, , 2005bBuliung et al, 2009;Deehr and Shumann, 2009;Fitzhugh et al, 2010;Garrard and Crawford, 2010;Hinckson and Badland, 2011;Mammen et al, 2014aMammen et al, , 2014bMcDonald et al, 2013;Morrison et al, 2004;Moudon and Stewart, 2012;Parker et al, 2013) and measurement outcomes (Boarnet et al, 2005a(Boarnet et al, , 2005bBuliung et al, 2009;Deehr and Shumann, 2009;Fitzhugh et al, 2010;Garrard and Crawford, 2010;Hinckson and Badland, 2011;Mammen et al, 2014aMammen et al, , 2014bMcDonald et al, 2013;Morrison et al, 2004;Parker et al, 2013) was frequently considered serious.…”

“…Retrospective (Boarnet et al, 2005a;Buliung et al, 2011;Mammen et al, 2014a) and prospective parent surveys (Garrard and Crawford, 2010) were less frequently used. Four studies used non-validated observational methods to provide count data on method of travel (Boarnet et al, 2005b;Fitzhugh et al, 2010;Morrison et al, 2004;Parker et al, 2013). Two studies did not explicitly report the methods used to collect the primary outcome data (Deehr and Shumann, 2009;Moudon and Stewart, 2012).…”

Evaluating the Interference of Bicycle Traffic on Vehicle Operation on Urban Streets with Bike Lanes

“…Some other studies evaluated the traffic operation and the level of service on the streets with bike lanes [11,12,[22][23][24]. In recent years, the interactions between bicycle and vehicle traffic flow on streets have gained much attention from transportation professionals [25][26][27][28][29]. However, those previous studies did not aim to evaluate and predict the vehicle delay caused by bicycles under different traffic situations which is still a critical issue that has not been addressed properly.…”