Bicycle Policy Research Articles

Safety Insights from E-Scooter Rider and Bicyclist Behavior Observations in Two U.S. Cities

E-scooters, a novel micromobility mode, have transformed U.S. transportation in urban cores, offering potential advantages like cost-effective mobility, congestion reduction, community accessibility, and lower emissions. However, owing to their novelty, their associated safety impacts and rider behaviors remain uncertain, complicating policy formulation. Specifically, e-scooter policy often mirrors bicycle policy, yet there have been few studies that have explicitly investigated how e-scooter and bicycle rider behaviors compare. This research investigated rider behavior relative to infrastructure by examining riding patterns through a video-based platform on 26 Nashville and Portland streets, offering insights on e-scooter and bicyclist behaviors, including riding location and helmet use. This study differs from other observational studies since it covers longer observation periods than prior in-person studies, including nighttime riding behavior. The video analysis also allows for observations of basic demographic characteristics. The findings revealed that bike lanes were well-used and dramatically reduced sidewalk riding and general travel lane usage. Without bike lanes, riders typically resorted to using sidewalks on high-capacity roads and sharing lanes with vehicles on low-capacity streets. The data also suggested demographic trends, such as riskier behavior among younger, male riders, and low helmet usage among e-scooter riders. The results emphasize the need for micromobility-supportive infrastructure in road design to encourage safer riding practices.

Bicycle Data-Driven Application Framework: A Dutch Case Study on Machine Learning-Based Bicycle Delay Estimation at Signalized Intersections Using Nationwide Sparse GPS Data.

Data-driven approaches are helpful for quantitative justification and performance evaluation. The Netherlands has made notable strides in establishing a national protocol for bicycle traffic counting and collecting GPS cycling data through initiatives such as the Talking Bikes program. This article addresses the need for a generic framework to harness cycling data and extract relevant insights. Specifically, it focuses on the application of estimating average bicycle delays at signalized intersections, as this is an essential variable in assessing the performance of the transportation system. This study evaluates machine learning (ML)-based approaches using GPS cycling data. The dataset provides comprehensive yet incomplete information regarding one million bicycle rides annually across The Netherlands. These ML models, including random forest, k-nearest neighbor, support vector regression, extreme gradient boosting, and neural networks, are developed to estimate bicycle delays. The study demonstrates the feasibility of estimating bicycle delays using sparse GPS cycling data combined with publicly accessible information, such as weather information and intersection complexity, leveraging the burden of understanding local traffic conditions. It emphasizes the potential of data-driven approaches to inform traffic management, bicycle policy, and infrastructure development.

BICYCLE POLICY IN MEXICO CITY: Urban Experiments and Differentiated Citizenship

AbstractThis article examines the effect of the development of bicycle policy in Mexico City on existing landscapes of urban citizenship. In Mexico City, NGOs, activists and progressive city officials used Ecobici, the city's bike share system, to promote the bicycle as an innovative, sustainable and socially inclusive mode of transportation in central areas of the city. At the same time, bicycle infrastructure has not yet reached peripheral, low‐income and underfunded districts, where residents rely on bicycles for transportation. I draw on the Cities and Low Carbon Transitions framework to examine bicycle policy as a project aimed at transforming Mexico City's socio‐technical systems for transportation, and I draw on notions of urban citizenship to examine how green urban infrastructures materialize and transform regimes of inequality. The article shows how the bicycle experiment was limited by a consensus that maintained existing power inequalities, favored expert‐driven design targeting middle‐class users, and opted for rapid project implementation over long‐term institutional re‐design and capacity‐building. These dynamics excluded citizens from the planning of bicycle policy and the urban poor from enjoying the benefits of the investments.

Deconstructing accessibility – discursive barriers for increased cycling in Sweden

ABSTRACT Society’s planning for and dependence on automobility has created several major problems and calls for a shift away from car-based mobility are proliferating. There is a growing recognition of the positive effects of cycling and modal shares for cycling are on the rise in cities. Nevertheless, bicycling is still marginalised in national transport policies. In Sweden, cycling shares are decreasing at a national level, and to steer towards increased cycling, a policy shift is needed. We adopt a post-structuralist view and consider a policy shift to be a discursive shift. With the help of Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory, the paper depicts the position of cycling in Swedish national transport policy. As accessibility is a key concept in national transport policy and planning, we consider the meaning bestowed upon this concept paramount with regard to the marginalisation of cycling at the national level. The lack of decisiveness in national bicycle policy can be traced back to a suppression of certain meanings of accessibility. This calls for a reinterpretation of accessibility and a revaluation of the national responsibility for cycling. The framing of cycling as a local and primarily urban issue hampers the pro-activity of the national government regarding cycling.

Crowdsourced data for bicycling research and practice

ABSTRACT Cities are promoting bicycling for transportation as an antidote to increased traffic congestion, obesity and related health issues, and air pollution. However, both research and practice have been stalled by lack of data on bicycling volumes, safety, infrastructure, and public attitudes. New technologies such as GPS-enabled smartphones, crowdsourcing tools, and social media are changing the potential sources for bicycling data. However, many of the developments are coming from data science and it can be difficult evaluate the strengths and limitations of crowdsourced data. In this narrative review we provide an overview and critique of crowdsourced data that are being used to fill gaps and advance bicycling behaviour and safety knowledge. We assess crowdsourced data used to map ridership (fitness, bike share, and GPS/accelerometer data), assess safety (web-map tools), map infrastructure (OpenStreetMap), and track attitudes (social media). For each category of data, we discuss the challenges and opportunities they offer for researchers and practitioners. Fitness app data can be used to model spatial variation in bicycling ridership volumes, and GPS/accelerometer data offer new potential to characterise route choice and origin-destination of bicycling trips; however, working with these data requires a high level of training in data science. New sources of safety and near miss data can be used to address underreporting and increase predictive capacity but require grassroots promotion and are often best used when combined with official reports. Crowdsourced bicycling infrastructure data can be timely and facilitate comparisons across multiple cities; however, such data must be assessed for consistency in route type labels. Using social media, it is possible to track reactions to bicycle policy and infrastructure changes, yet linking attitudes expressed on social media platforms with broader populations is a challenge. New data present opportunities for improving our understanding of bicycling and supporting decision making towards transportation options that are healthy and safe for all. However, there are challenges, such as who has data access and how data crowdsourced tools are funded, protection of individual privacy, representativeness of data and impact of biased data on equity in decision making, and stakeholder capacity to use data given the requirement for advanced data science skills. If cities are to benefit from these new data, methodological developments and tools and training for end-users will need to track with the momentum of crowdsourced data.

Invisible Bicycle: Parallel Histories and Different Timelines ed. by Tiina Männistö-Funk, Timo Myllyntaus

Reviewed by: Invisible Bicycle: Parallel Histories and Different Timelines ed. by Tiina Männistö-Funk, Timo Myllyntaus Paul Smethurst (bio) Invisible Bicycle: Parallel Histories and Different Timelines. Edited by Tiina Männistö-Funk and Timo Myllyntaus. Leiden: Brill, 2018. Pp. xii+282. $133. The theme of this collection of eight essays on bicycle history is the relative invisibility since the rise of automobility of both the bicycle as a socio-cultural phenomenon and of cycling as a practice. The essays by Cox and Oddy which top and tail this collection take the theme in interesting and nuanced directions. Others are more tightly focused on localized histories [End Page 360] of bicycles, cycling, and transport policy. These advance the theme of the “invisible bicycle” through gaps and silences in bicycle history. Männistö-Funk’s introduction is subtitled, “The Historical Production of the Invisible and Visible Bicycles” (sic). The somewhat abstruse title is an example of shortcomings in the copyediting in some of the essays (especially evident in footnotes and references). The introductory essay then struggles to reconcile what seem to be a disparate set of reworked conference papers to a common theme. It then launches into a discussion of the bicycle’s conspicuous absence from dystopian science fiction. This ends, oddly, with fine examples of the bicycle in science fiction literature and film. Despite Cox’s excellent critique of the tendency in extant bicycle histories towards periodization and Western-centric meta-narratives, the volume as a whole doesn’t answer his call for “pluralized histories of cycling which are both socially and geographically diverse” (p. 47). The “parallel histories” and “different timelines” announced in the volume’s subtitle rarely deviate from Western orthodoxies. Furthermore, despite the “broad geographical spread” (p. vii) of essays promised in the preface, there is one essay on the Japanese cycle industry, with the others mainly confined to European contexts. Neither are there any alternative histories; race, class, and gender issues are disappointingly invisible. In her introduction, Männistö-Funk compares the “invisibilities” of bicycles and cyclists in contemporary Western society with the social invisibility of minorities and the marginalized. If this refers to recreational riders and middle-class commuters, it is a First World problem; it is regardless a false analogy. Cox’s essay on the meta-narratives governing bicycle histories seemed familiar to me, as did Oddy’s on “History, Tweed and the Invisible Bicycle.” The latter was perhaps the inspiration for the volume, since its thesis is echoed in other essays. The presence/absence of the bicyclist in the social imaginary is an interesting idea, especially when this is mapped against modernist/postmodernist and other cultural transformations. Oddy’s essay begins with the actual invisibility of cyclists and legal requirements in the United Kingdom to make them visible. In a neat turn, the London “Tweed Run” restores visibility through an anachronistic Debordian spectacle, while simultaneously engaging in a form of postmodern regression and street protest. Oosterhuis’s essay compares national cycling practices and transport policies, sensibly concluding that national characteristics, infrastructure, terrain, economics, and class all give rise to national bicycle policies, which in turn shape local bicycle culture. Bicycle histories thereby have trajectories beyond the metanarratives of motor transport history. Missing from all this, however, is consideration of integrated transport policies in those cities responding to climate change. [End Page 361] Emanuel’s essay touches on climate change as it explores Stockholm’s focus on making the city attractive through bicycle-friendliness, as well as challenging the role of the car for everyday commuting. However, as Emanuel points out, there is an important urban/regional divide here, as the success of urban schemes is not replicated in the regions. The history of the so-called “Dutch” bicycle is the subject of Tai and Veraart’s essay. This traces the development of a machine which was not so much “invented” (always a slippery term) as appropriated from standard imports, and then adapted to local conditions and demands. The firm and continuing belief in the national pedigree of the “Dutch” bicycle suggests the triumph of cultural history over materialism, and is an example of manifest acculturation. Following the general theme of some of the...

Bicycling in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Opportunities and challenges

Addis Ababa is urbanizing at an increasing rate. Mobility problems and related negative impacts of motorized traffic and associated road safety issues remained to be a big challenge to the city. Improved cycling environment can play a greater role in solving those issues through reducing the exposure to risk of crashes and leading to a sustainable urban transportation. Among others, the benefits of increased level of bicycling are; health and physical fitness, clean environment, safe and cheap mode of transportation, particularly for a developing city like Addis Ababa. Regardless of the significant benefits of bicycling, the use of the bicycle as a mode of transportation in Addis Ababa is currently negligible and understudied. Furthermore, the cycling environment of the city faces many challenges. Some of the challenges are; lack of bicycle infrastructures, poorly maintained infrastructure, lack of bicycle policy and strategy. The supply of bicycle with reasonable price and lack of awareness of the benefits of using cycling as a mode of transportation are also another issue in the city. This paper is prepared to provide a review of the literature on the opportunities and challenges of bicycling in Addis Ababa. It focuses on evidence of (i) the opportunities of bicycling along with its challenges, and (ii) the current status of the cycling environment in the city. The main objective of this paper is to collect evidences that outline the potentials and problems the city faces to achieve a better cycling environment. It is expected to provide important information that can be used by transport planners, policy makers and researchers of the city improve the cycling environment. Going forward, the city has the intention to prioritize Non-Motorized Transport, including cycling in the city.

From Victim to Villain

This article employs a social practice approach to analyze the boom and bust of cycling in Stockholm around 1980, in the context of broader socioeconomic trends and under the influence of new cyclists, bicycle innovation, and local traffic policy. Within a predominantly car-based city traffic regime, which rendered some mobility practice more legitimate than others, measures intended for cyclists were taken at the expense of pedestrians rather than motorists. Because of a blend of more cyclists, faster bicycles, and design choices based on the car as norm, the image of the cyclist transformed from that of the victim (of automobility) to the villain, and, for this reason, cycling was less easily supported by local politicians. Combined with the second wave of automobility in the 1980s, bicycle policy and planning lost its steam, and cycling declined.

Abstract P279: Workplace Facilities and Policies Associated With Bicycling to Work Among Adults

Introduction: Bicycling to work is a mode of transportation that provides regular physical activity and has been associated with mental and physical well-being. Limited research has examined what facilities, such as bike racks, and policies within the workplace are associated with bicycling to work. Hypothesis: Access to workplace facilities and policies will be associated with higher odds of bicycling to work. Methods: In 2016/17, a convenience sample of adult residents of Travis County (Austin), Texas, and Jefferson County (Birmingham), Alabama who had ridden a bicycle at least once in the past year responded to an Internet-based questionnaire assessing correlates of bicycling. Participants who self-reported that a purpose of their bicycle trips was commuting to/from work were categorized as a bicycle commuter. Workplace facilities/policies included (a) bicycle lockers, (b) locked rooms/cages, (c) clothes storage, (d) bike racks, (e) showers, and (f) policies that supported bicycling to work. A summary score ordinal variable, (g) total facilitators, was derived by adding the total number of reported policies/facilities per participant. Multivariable logistic regression models adjusting for age, race, education, income, number of motor vehicles, relationship status, children in household, and sex were used to estimate the association between individual workplace facilities and policies, as well as total facilitators, and bicycle commuting. Interactions were tested between sex and each of the workplace variables. Analyses was limited to participants who were employed. Results: The final analytic sample was 771; 45% were categorized as a bicycle commuter (n=344). Access to workplace facilities/policies ranged from 7% (bike lockers) to 50% (bike racks). Bike lockers (OR 5.6; 95% CI 4.5,6.8), locked rooms/cages, (OR 2.2; 95% CI 1.4, 3.3), clothes storage (OR 2.0; 95% CI 1.5, 2.7), bike racks (OR 3.2; 95% CI 3.0, 3.3), and policies that supported bicycling to work (OR 3.3, 95% CI 2.5, 4.4) were associated with significantly higher odds of being a bicycle commuter. Only showers in the workplace showed a significant interaction by sex; showers were directly associated with being a bicycle commuter for males (OR 2.1; 95% CI 2.0, 2.1), but inversely associated with being a bicycle commuter for females (OR 0.9; 95% CI 0.8, 0.9). As compared to no facilitators, having 1 facilitator was associated with 2.1 times higher odds (95% CI 1.8, 2.6), 2 facilitators with 3.1 times higher odds (95% CI 2.1, 4.5), 3 facilitators with 4.4 times higher odds (95% CI 4.2, 4.8), and 4 or more facilitators with 7.9 times higher odds of being a bicycle commuter (95% CI 7.0, 9.0). Conclusions: The presence of workplace facilities/policies is associated with higher odds of bicycling to work. Workplaces should consider how the institutional environment can promote active transportation, and, in turn, employee health.

Bicycle urbanism as a competitive advantage in the neoliberal age: the case of bicycle promotion in Portland

ABSTRACTIn the light of the emergent ‘bicycle renaissance’ in the US, this paper analyses the rationale basis of bicycle role model, Portland's promotion of bicycling. By conceptualizing bicycle promotion as a ‘travelling idea’, the paper discusses the key rationales and discourses structuring how bicycle policies are translated into the City of Portland. The study finds that strong neoliberal rationales such as competitiveness, cost-effectiveness, and value for money are pivotal in Portland's legitimization of spending on bicycle promotion, with sustainability and equity concerns being comparatively neglected. It is argued that this approach raises serious questions about the bicycle's potential as an egalitarian and sustainable practice, and urges potential ‘bicycle cities’ and advocates to be aware of the incommensurability of the creative class strategy and environmental justice goals.

Bicycling policy indirectly associated with overweight/obesity.

Policies to enhance bicycling are correlated with health outcomes. Research has yet to provide an adequate, empirically derived explanation for this finding. To examine a comprehensive model of a pathway potentially linking bicycle policies to overweight/obesity. Data representing multiple years between 2006 and 2012 from CDC, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Alliance for Biking and Walking were subjected to bivariate and multivariate analyses in 2013. A path model was created to explain the relationship between bicycle policies and overweight/obesity in the 48 largest U.S. cities. Zero-order correlations were significant between the number of bicycle policies and the percentage of workers bicycling to work and rates of overweight/obesity. These relationships did not remain statistically significant in the multivariate analysis. However, more bicycle policies were associated with a greater number of bicycle infrastructure components (p<0.005). In turn, bicycling infrastructure components were positively related to the percentage of workers bicycling to work (p<0.001), which was inversely associated with overweight/obesity rates (p<0.05). The results of this study suggest that large cities with more policies aimed at promoting bicycling have fewer overweight/obese residents, partially because the policies are related to supportive bicycling infrastructures that promote bicycling to work.

Understanding cyclists’ perceptions, keys for a successful bicycle promotion

Many variables that influence bicycle use beyond time and cost have been included in models of various types. However, psycho-social factors that make the bicycle eligible as a modal alternative have not been identified properly. These factors are related to intention, attitudes and perceptions, and their identification can contribute to obtain the keys for a successful bicycle policy. Here, an in-depth investigation of cyclists’ perceptions is attempted using a large university survey designed and collected ad hoc, and then applying exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. After identifying fourteen factors, a structural equations model was estimated to find structure and relationships among variables and to understand users’ intentions to use the bike. Four (latent) variables are identified, namely convenience, pro-bike, physical determinants and exogenous restrictions. The main conclusion is that convenience (flexible, efficient) and exogenous restrictions (danger, vandalism, facilities) are the most important elements to understand the attitudes towards the bicycle.

‘No bicycle lanes!’ Shouted the cyclists. A controversial bicycle project in Curitiba, Brazil

After many years without any substantial improvement in bicycle infrastructure in Curitiba, a 4-km Leisure Bicycle Lane was implemented in the central area of the city in 2011. The project was one of several that City Hall hurriedly implemented following pressure from bike activists. On the Sunday the project was launched, more than three thousand cyclists are estimated to have used the bicycle lane; of these, 300 cycled alongside the lane, outside it, against it. They made the front pages of newspapers, disrupted the sociotechnical framework of bicycle policy in the city and put bicycles on the political agenda of the municipal elections. This paper discusses why, in a city renowned worldwide for its public transportation system and for having more than a 100km of bicycle lanes, a bicycle project failed after being sabotaged by cyclists and was definitively abandoned in February 2013. Based on interviews with key actors, including public officials, journalists, and bicycle activists, this paper concludes that the failed bicycle lane unveils the profound and urgent social and political dimensions embedded in what had been presented by municipal authorities as a neutral technical solution.

Bicycle Research between Bicycle Policies and Bicycle Culture

After the Second World War, the bicycle was surpassed by the car as the dominant mode of individual transportation in most Western countries. Since the 1970s, however, bicycle use has again gained some support both from the general public and from governments. In the last two decades national governments and cities throughout the Western world, from Norway to Australia and the United States to Germany, as well as the European Union, have launched policy statements and programs aimed at promoting cycling. Policy documents show much optimism about the possibilities to increase the bike’s modal share in transport by means of infrastructural and social engineering. These policy plans have enhanced social scientific and traffic engineering research into bicycle use and its facilitation.

Sustainable Transport in Canadian Cities: Cycling Trends and Policies

This article presents a review of bicycling policies and trends in Canadian provinces and urban areas in light of Canada's success in promoting bicycle use in urban areas, compared to the U.S. However, the rates are still much below Europe's. A history of policy decisions, starting with the 2002 ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the Canadian government, is given. Overall trends and spatial variation in Canadian cycling are examined. Levels vary widely among the provinces, but the high is only 2 percent of work trips. Fatalities and injuries have fallen, despite the increase in bicycle trips and miles traveled. Bicycle policies at the federal, provincial and local levels are discussed. Broad areas of policy include parking and integration with transit, intersection modifications, and safety programs. Eight city centers are analyzed in case studies, with results showing an overall stagnation in bicycle travel growth.

Fifty Years of Bicycle Policy in Davis, California

Davis, California, has long been known as the bicycle capital of the United States. In the 1960s, citizens lobbied for bike lanes to make bike travel safer. After 2 years of lobbying and 1 year of engineering, Davis created the first bike lanes in postwar America. After 1967, transportation in Davis was oriented toward the bicycle. The city's Public Works Department staff developed many innovative designs and programs that were fine-tuned in Davis and then exported elsewhere. The university and city worked together on engineering, education, enforcement, and encouragement efforts. In the 1980s, greenways were added to the system. Davis now has 50 mi of bike lanes and 50 mi of off-street paths in a 10-square-mi city, making a highly functional bicycle transportation system. However, bicycling levels have decreased since 1990, falling from 28% of work trips in 1980 to 14% in 2000. City and University of California, Davis, staff attribute this to changing demographics, intercity commuting, and increased transit. In addition, during this time, bicycle programs have contracted and infrastructure expansion has slowed. Application of theories of public policy change suggest that the advocacy efforts in the 1960s led to a policy shift emphasizing bicycling that continued through the mid-1990s, when most programs had dwindled or disappeared. In the future, a resurgence in advocacy might reverse the deterioration of bicycle programs and result in increased bicycle use by Davis residents.

Lessons from US Bicycle Policy about Promotion of Bicycle Use As a Means of Transportation

The bicycle is the most energy efficient vehicle. Among Japanese people, it is used as one of the most important means of transportation for commuting compared with US. But the safety environment for bicycle user is very sever in Japan. We can get many lessons from the US policy, because of its progressiveness and strength.US Transportation policy gives priority on non-mortorized vehicle, especially on the bicycle. According to US Code 23 (High Way), the bicycle is considered as means of transportation. And financial assistances by federal government to the States for multi modal transportation are very hospitable, and accordingly every state shall make comprehensive and long term transportation plan which includes a bicycle plan. And in addition to this, every state shall put the bicycle and pedestrian coordinator in the State department of transportation. There are no such policy situations in Japan.Bicycles have the same rights and duties as motor vehicles, and are treated as a means of transportation on the road by vehicle laws of many state. The motor vehicle users must share the road with bicycle. There are the same obligations to give attention to each other for both motor vehicle drivers and bicycle riders. As a result, the number of the traffic accident fatalities of bicycle riders is much smaller compared with that of Japan and decreasing in these years. Japanese Policy needs to learn the fundamentals of those of US.Lessons from US bicycle policy are as follows. The Bicycle must be considered clearly as the means of transportation by law, and at the same time, had better be given the same rights and duties as motor vehicle. And through these actions, the bicycle policy can be put more priority among Japanese transportation policies. To realize these points, such legislation and financial measures needs to be taken by the Japanese government.