How to Increase Bicycling for Daily Travel

Active Living Research, a National Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has released a new report that aims provide cities with the most effective strategies for increasing daily bicycle travel.

Authors Jennifer Dill, PhD, Portland State University; Susan L. Handy, PhD, University of California, Davis; and John Pucher, PhD, Rutgers University, have summarized existing evidence from worldwide research into increasing bicycling.

Their key findings include:

• Infrastructure for bicycling in cities is strongly associated with overall higher levels of bicycling to work, school, or shopping.
• The most effective infrastructure for increasing bicycling for daily travel is still unclear though protected bike lanes have been shown to significantly increase bicycling on those routes.
• Infrastructure must be paired with programs and policies that support bicycling to have the greatest effect on bicycling levels.
• Programs including bike to work weeks, ciclovias, Safe Routes to School, and bike share have been shown to increase the effectiveness of investments in bicycling infrastructure.
• Making driving more expensive and less convenient through policies may be necessary to maximize the effectiveness of infrastructure investments in encouraging bicycling.
• Land use and development policies must help ensure that destinations for daily needs are within convenient bicycling distances.

Read the report here: activelivingresearch.com/dailybiketravel