The mortality impact of bicycle paths and lanes related to physical activity, air pollution exposure and road safety

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Objective: Guidelines for bicycle infrastructure design tend to consider safety issues but not wider health issues. This paper explores the overall health impact of bicycle infrastructure provision, including not just road safety impacts, but also the population health impacts stemming from physical activity as well as cyclists' exposure to air pollution. Data and methods: We have summarised key publications on how bicycle paths and lanes affect cyclists' exposure to physical activity, air pollution, and road safety. The health impact is modelled using all-cause mortality as a metric for a scenario with new bicycle lanes and paths in a hypothetical city. Results: The outcomes of the study suggest that, based on currently available research, a reduction of all-cause mortality is to be expected from building bicycle lanes and paths along busy roads with mixed traffic. Increased physical activity through more time spent cycling is the major contribution, but is also the most uncertain aspect. Effects related to air pollution and cycling safety are likely to reduce mortality but are small. The overall benefits are large enough to achieve a high benefit-cost ratio for bicycle infrastructure. Conclusions: The introduction of bicycle paths and lanes is likely to be associated with health benefits, primarily due to increased physical activity. More research is needed to estimate the absolute size of the health benefits. In particular, evaluations of the effects of bicycle infrastructure on time spent cycling are limited or of insufficient quality to infer causality. We recommend before-after studies measuring the effects of different interventions and in areas representing a wide range of base levels of cycling participation

Making Transit Count: Performance Measures that Move Transit Projects Forward

Good data powers transit programs. Cities that succeed at implementing transit improvements, and make their streets safer and more efficient for people, do so because they prioritize collecting and leveraging data that emphasizes rider experience and service quality. Metrics that prioritize the movement of people—rather than just car traffic—enable cities and operators to refocus investments on improving service for transit riders and retrofitting streets to move more people. Making Transit Count is a set of guidelines that will help cities and transit operators tell a more complete and compelling story about transit, and about streets. The resource paper, which draws from best practices and case studies in North American cities, offers example performance metrics and proposes ways to use these metrics to connect technical solutions to the daily bus trip. From total person throughput, to excess wait time and spatial equity measurements, the latest NACTO Transit Leadership Paper shows how to use data to tell a complete story

Micromobility – Regulatory Challenges and Opportunities

Shared, dockless micromobility is causing concern across the globe. The phenomenon started with shared bikes and e-bikes. More recently, e-scooters (or electric kickbikes), the focus of this chapter, have flooded cities in unprecedented speed and volume – and have caught virtually every city and competent authority off guard. The failure of current regulatory frameworks to address new challenges posed by e-scooters is explored. This chapter first briefly describes major developments of the shared e-scooter market. It then presents rationales for, and to some extent against, e-scooter regulation as well as policy tools available for e-scooter regulation. E-scooters open the door for new and innovative – and potentially efficient – ways to regulate, including geofencing, zoning, mandatory data sharing and mandatory cooperation. Against this backdrop, the chapter discusses regulatory dilemmas, challenges, opportunities and possibilities.acceptedVersio

Micromobility – Regulatory Challenges and Opportunities

Shared, dockless micromobility is causing concern across the globe. The phenomenon started with shared bikes and e-bikes. More recently, e-scooters (or electric kickbikes), the focus of this chapter, have flooded cities in unprecedented speed and volume – and have caught virtually every city and competent authority off guard. The failure of current regulatory frameworks to address new challenges posed by e-scooters is explored. This chapter first briefly describes major developments of the shared e-scooter market. It then presents rationales for, and to some extent against, e-scooter regulation as well as policy tools available for e-scooter regulation. E-scooters open the door for new and innovative – and potentially efficient – ways to regulate, including geofencing, zoning, mandatory data sharing and mandatory cooperation. Against this backdrop, the chapter discusses regulatory dilemmas, challenges, opportunities and possibilities

Sustainable Precincts: Transforming Australian Cities One Neighbourhood at a Time

This chapter discusses planning approaches for Australian cities to support highly liveable, low carbon, sustainable urban environments. The chapter focusses on where and how new development should occur. Discussion covers three main areas:The theory of urban fabrics and the influence of dominant transport modes upon urban morphology. This is described in terms of the three main urban fabrics (walking, transit and automobile),The need for greater urban regeneration (brownfield and greyfield infill) in place of continued greenfield sprawl andThe various benefits of medium to high-density precinct-scale planning and design combined with eco-efficient distributed infrastructure.Considered together, these factors represent a more strategic approach than is common in planning today, by placing greater emphasis upon liveability and sustainability outcomes.</p