Policy

This article examines the extent to which protected infrastructure is associated with greater diversity and normalisation of cycling. In the UK, cyclists are predominantly male and often wear distinctive cycle clothing rather than everyday clothes. This is not the case in higher-cycling countries such as the Netherlands and Germany. It has been argued that the UK's demographic skewing may be partly due to poor quality infrastructure which can be off-putting for many, but particularly for women, children and older people.

Background: England’s national cycle training scheme, ‘Bikeability’, aims to give children in England the confidence to cycle more. There is, however, little evidence on the effectiveness of cycle training in achieving this. We therefore examined whether delivering Bikeability was associated with cycling frequency or with independent cycling.

[In Dutch] - a document produced by Utrecht city municipality, in the wake of the Tour de France visit in 2015, summarising the progress the city is making on cycling, what it plans to do, and the economic case for doing so.

Despite significant national and local efforts over the last decade to stimulate uptake of cycling in the UK, levels of cycling (particularly utility cycling) remain at around 2% of journeys. Understanding of cycling behaviour and subsequent development of interventions has typically been undertaken using an individualist approach, often relying on psychologically based models of behaviour.

"The main question tackled here is: what really happens to traffic conditions when road capacity is reduced or reallocated? In pursuing the answer, interpretation of the evidence required consideration of a second question which had not featured so strongly in the original work-plan: what are the underlying changes in travel choice and behaviour that cause these effects?"

Independent evidence review of national and international studies showing the economic value of investing in cycling infrastructure.

The review found that existing methods of appraisal do not incorporate the full extent of economic benefits associated with cycling. The review found these potential benefits:

Walking and cycling are good for our physical and mental health. Switching more journeys to active travel will improve health, quality of life and the environment, and local productivity, while at the same time reducing costs to the public purse. These are substantial ‘win-wins’ that benefit individual people and the community as a whole.