Short-term planning and policy interventions to promote cycling in urban centers: Findings from a commute mode choice analysis in Barcelona, Spain

Abstract

a b s t r a c tBackground: Cycling for transportation has become an increasingly important component of strategies to address public health, climate change, and air quality concerns in urban centers. Within this context, planners and policy makers would benefit from an improved understanding of available interventions and their relative effectiveness for cycling promotion. We examined predictors of bicycle commuting that are relevant to planning and policy intervention, particularly those amenable to short-and medium-term action. Methods: We estimated a travel mode choice model using data from a survey of 765 commuters who live and work within the municipality of Barcelona. We considered how the decision to commute by bicycle was associated with cycling infrastructure, bike share availability, travel demand incentives, and other environmental attributes (e.g., public transport availability). Self-reported and objective (GIS-based) measures were compared. Point elasticities and marginal effects were calculated to assess the relative explanatory power of the independent variables considered. Results: While both self-reported and objective measures of access to cycling infrastructure were associated with bicycle commuting, self-reported measures had stronger associations. Bicycle commuting had positive associations with access to bike share stations but inverse associations with access to public transport stops. Point elasticities suggested that bicycle commuting has a mild negative correlation with public transport availability (À0.136), bike share availability is more important at the work location (0.077) than at home (0.034), and bicycle lane presence has a relatively small association with bicycle commuting (0.039). Marginal effects suggested that provision of an employer-based incentive not to commute by private vehicle would be associated with an 11.3% decrease in the probability of commuting by bicycle, likely reflecting the typical emphasis of such incentives on public transport. Contents lists available at ScienceDirectTransportation Research Part A j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / t r a public transport, through the presence of public transport stops and the provision of public transport-oriented travel demand incentives. Education and awareness campaigns that influence perceptions of cycling infrastructure availability, travel demand incentives that encourage cycling, and policies that integrate public transport and cycling may be promising and cost-effective strategies to promote cycling in the short to medium term.

The Relationship between the Neighborhood Built Environment and Active Transportation among Adults: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Residential density [30] • Parcel level density was positively related to the frequency of walking for transport and not related to the participation in walking for transport • Area level density was not related to the frequency of walking for transport and negatively related to the participation in walking for transport Land use mix [48] • Land use mix was positively related to walking for errands • Land use mix was not related to walking to work/school Street connectivity [64] • 500-m buffer: street connectivity was positively related to walking for transport • 1000-m buffer: street connectivity was not related to walking for transport Walkability [25] • Walkability was positively related to the participation in walking for transport • Walkability was not related to the duration of walking for transport [42] • Walkability was positively related to the frequency of walking for transport • Walkability was not related to the duration of walking for transport Bicycle lane [61] • Bicycle lane was not related to cycling for transport • Bicycle network connectivity was positively related to cycling for transport Table 9. Cont.…”

“…Particularly, access to destinations showed opposite results between walking and cycling for transport. Two studies [56,61] found that access to public transit services was negatively related to cycling for transport. It is possible that people who have easy access to public transport would choose to use it rather than cycling.…”

A Bicycle Origin–Destination Matrix Estimation Based on a Two-Stage Procedure

“…From the figure, the zonal demand pattern reveals that a majority of the bicycle attraction flows are from the central business district (CBD) area, while the bicycle production flows are generated from the non-CBD areas. Once the bicycle productions and attractions are estimated from each zone in Figure 3, the primary bicycle O-D matrix is estimated using the doubly constrained gravity model given in Equation (1). Because of the absence of bicycle friction factors from the City of Winnipeg, bicycle trip length introduced by [58] was substituted for the friction factors.…”

“…Bicycling is increasing in many urban communities around the world due to the push for sustainable living and other factors [1][2][3]. The volume of bicycle users has increased enough to significantly affect the modal split in such communities.…”

Personalised information services for bikers

“…The results confirmed that safety aspects of the roads influence bikers' route choice. Braun et al (2016) investigated how the decision to commute by bicycle was associated with cycling infrastructure, bike share availability, incentive programs and other attributes (e.g., public transport availability). They found that cycling and public transport are competing modes and presence of bicycle lane has a relatively small association with bicycle commuting.…”