Bike Score®: Associations between urban bikeability and cycling behavior in 24 cities

Abstract

BackgroundThere is growing interest in designing cities that support not only walking, but also cycling. Bike Score® is a metric capturing environmental characteristics associated with cycling that is now available for over 160 US and Canadian cities. Our aim was to determine if Bike Score was associated with between and within-city variability in cycling behavior.MethodsWe used linear regression to model associations between Bike Score and journey to work cycling mode share (US: American Community Survey, 2013 or 2012 5-year estimates; Canada: 2011 National Household Survey) for 5664 census tracts in 24 US and Canadian cities.ResultsAt the city level, the correlation between mean Bike Score and mean journey to work cycling mode share was moderate (r = 0.52). At the census tract level, the correlation was 0.35; a ten-unit increase in Bike Score was associated with a 0.5 % (95 % CI: 0.5 to 0.6) increase in the proportion of population cycling to work, a meaningful difference given the low modal shares (mean = 1.9 %) in many North American cities. Census tracts with the highest Bike Scores (>90 to 100) had mode shares 4.0 % higher (β = 4.0, 95 % CI: 2.9 to 5.0) than the lowest Bike Score areas (0–25). City specific analyses indicated between-city variability in associations, with regression estimates between Bike Score and mode share ranging from 0.2 to 3.5 %.ConclusionsThe Bike Score metric was associated bicycle mode share between and within cities, suggesting its utility for planning bicycle infrastructure.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12966-016-0339-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Proximity to four bikeway types and neighbourhood-level cycling mode share of male and female commuters

“…The association was strong and the same in the two cities. The results are consistent with a recent study of neighborhood commuter cycling in 24 North American cities, and with studies that have compared mode shares between cities (Winters et al, 2016;Buehler & Pucher, 2012b;Dill & Carr, 2003). What about the effect of bikeway types?…”

“…In countries with little cycling, surveys indicate that route safety concerns are the major deterrent and that designated infrastructure for cycling is the major motivator (Aldred, Elliott, Woodcock, & Goodman, 2016;Buehler & Dill, 2016;. Opinion research is supported by evidence of differences between cities in North America: in those with more bike infrastructure, commute mode shares are considerably higher (Winters, Teschke, Brauer, & Fuller, 2016;Schoner & Levinson, 2014;Buehler & Pucher, 2012b;Dill & Carr, 2003). Large cities with more bike infrastructure have city-wide mode shares of 2-6%, while those with little often have mode shares near zero (Winters et al, 2016;Buehler & Pucher, 2012b).…”

“…Opinion research is supported by evidence of differences between cities in North America: in those with more bike infrastructure, commute mode shares are considerably higher (Winters, Teschke, Brauer, & Fuller, 2016;Schoner & Levinson, 2014;Buehler & Pucher, 2012b;Dill & Carr, 2003). Large cities with more bike infrastructure have city-wide mode shares of 2-6%, while those with little often have mode shares near zero (Winters et al, 2016;Buehler & Pucher, 2012b). Within cities, there can be even greater differences in cycling mode shares, for example, a reported range of 0 to 34% across census tracts in a study of 24 US and Canadian cities (Winters et al, 2016).…”

“…Large cities with more bike infrastructure have city-wide mode shares of 2-6%, while those with little often have mode shares near zero (Winters et al, 2016;Buehler & Pucher, 2012b). Within cities, there can be even greater differences in cycling mode shares, for example, a reported range of 0 to 34% across census tracts in a study of 24 US and Canadian cities (Winters et al, 2016). In that study, the first in North America to examine the association between neighborhood-level cycling mode shares and nearby bike infrastructure, a positive association was found.…”

Geographical Assessment of Low-Carbon Transportation Modes: A Case Study from a Commuter University

“…Sustainability 2018, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 7 of 23 Additionally, Walk Score and Bike Score at each student's location were collected from the website https://www.walkscore.com/ to capture additional walkable and bikeable potentials at students' home locations. A number of studies used Walk Score and Bike Scores for studying the relationship between walkability and walking [63] and bikeability and bicycling behavior in urban areas [64]. The Walk Score website also offers transit score as measurement of transit accessibility at a location, but Transit score data for Greensboro area is not available for each student's location.…”