Abstract
Many cities across the globe are developing bikeways as a key strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and foster sustainable transportation. However, planners and community activists have raised concerns that bikeway expansion may induce gentrification and displacement, disproportionately affecting low-income communities and communities of color. While scholars have explored quantitative measurements of this relationship, the metrics fail to capture the nuances and complexity of gentrification as a socioeconomic phenomenon. Our analysis in Los Angeles (LA) examines the correlation between bikeway expansion and gentrification between 2010 and 2015. The findings suggest a minimal correlation between bikeway expansion and gentrification in the surrounding area. This brief provides policy considerations and future research recommendations. These include i) collecting and maintaining detailed bicycle infrastructure data, ii) assessing the relationship between bikeways and other key variables of wellbeing (e.g., housing, accessibility to services, health, and safety) through qualitative data, and iii) implementing meaningful participatory processes with diverse communities.
Highlights
Bicycle infrastructure development has expanded in recent years as a key strategy to foster sustainable urban transportation
Using data on bikeway development from 2010–2015 in Los Angeles, we find a negligible correlation between bikeway development and gentrification or displacement
We focus on analyzing the correlation between bikeway expansion and gentrification as opposed to determining whether bikeways cause gentrification [9], given the complexity in determining causality noted earlier
Summary
Utility of bikeways as a network instead of a single segment of infrastructure. Qualitative data has the potential to address some of the limitations of purely quantitative approaches to measuring the relationship between bikeway expansion and gentrification. In addition to disaggregated data, cities could invest in engaging community stakeholders across gender, age, race, economic, and ethnic backgrounds This process includes increasing the voice of minoritized communities in transportation agencies and community engagement strategies [6]. In this way, pursuing participatory methods, community engagement, neighborhood ethnographic studies, historical references, and social network data can enrich future studies and complement quantitative metrics. These approaches will make visible the potential differential impacts of bikeway expansion in diverse communities and help local governments prioritize investment where it is needed the most. Can bikeway expansion provide more equitable long-term outcomes
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