City administrations across Europe and beyond have made real progress in planning and providing for cycling in their cities. Support both for cycling measures and this book has come from the European Commission. Their support has been most valuable, but this was not the start of their involvement. In 1999, the then European Environment Commissioner, Ritt Bjerregard wrote the following foreword to their publication ‘Cycling: The way ahead for towns and cities’:
This manual will benefit a variety of users, but the primary target audiences are engineers, planners, enforcement professionals, public health professionals and educators and other such people who have responsibility to improve pedestrian safety at the local and sub-national levels. Though the application of this manual can be at the national level, the settings envisaged are sub-national geographical
Background: Despite the well-recognised benefit for individuals and communities of increased active travel, cycling remains a minority travel mode in many high income countries. Fear of injury is often cited as a reason. Campaigns to promote cycle helmet wear are alleged to contribute to this. However, there is little information on whether head injuries to cyclists are an important cause of death in road travel fatalities, compared with other road users.
The potential of bicycle and pedestrian travel in the city has been underestimated in past decades and, as a result, there has been some deterioration of facilities and public space availability for these road users. However, in recent years the value of these transport modes has gained recognition and is being prioritised much more highly in cities’ mobility policies.
Electric bikes proved to be very efficient in dense urban areas where most delivery rounds are short. In many ways they perform better than motorised vehicles, saving money and increasing efficiency.
Report shows that 'strong' Mini Holland' interventions generate more walking and more cycling, and don't identifiably increase traffic in surrounding areas, suggesting that providing good infra drives genuine growth in active travel.
Urban utility cycling is being promoted widely due to various health, social, economic and environmental benefits. This study seeks to identify and rank which munic- ipal-level policies and other factors are most influential in increasing cycling as a means of everyday transport and improving the real and perceived cycling safety in car-oriented urban centres. This is achieved by identifying the key factors thought to influence cycle use and by establishing a hierarchy of effectiveness of municipal cycling policies.
This thesis focuses on the question of how the road environment (road design and network characteristics) affects road safety for cyclists through effects on risk and exposure to risk. In this thesis, the term ‘road design’ is used to denote the location level (e.g. intersection design) while the term ‘network characteristics’ is used in relation to the network level (e.g. the presence of a road hierarchy and road classification). Road design plays a role in cyclists’ crash and injury risk. Network characteristics affect mode and route choice (Heinen et al.
Public bodies in England who wish to fund cycling infrastructure need to present a business case that justifies the investment. The idea of spending money to encourage people to cycle wasn’t central to public policy in the UK until quite recently. We therefore make the case for investment in cycling using an approach that evolved from the appraisal of more traditional transport projects, like highway improvements or new railway stations.
