Trialing a Road Lane to Bicycle Path Redesign—Changes in Travel Behavior with a Focus on Users’ Route and Mode Choice

Visualizing changes in physical activity behavioral patterns after redesigning urban infrastructure

The aim of this study was to explore effects of a major urban reconstruction on physical activity (PA) behavior by comparing PA intensity hotspots before and after the tunneling of a highway with a new infrastructure prioritized for walking and cycling. In total, 126 individuals participated before and after the tunneling. GPS loggers and accelerometers were used to assess location and PA levels. A geographic information system (GIS) was used to perform optimized hotspot analyses on PA data, both on transport and stationary data points. The results showed several changes in PA hotspots on trip data, even if total PA levels did not change. At follow-up, PA intensity hotspots were more connected, with the new infrastructure as a central connection. This was true for higher and lower educated individuals. Therefore, if changes in the built environment do not result in changes on population-level outcomes, this does not imply that they have no impact on behavior.

Evaluation of a New Urban Cycling Infrastructure in Caceres (Spain)

The purpose of the research is the evaluation of the impact of a new bike lane network built in Cáceres (Spain) in October 2019, a city with a weak tradition in the use of bicycles. Prior to the new project, the percentage of displacement by bicycle was under 0.2% (by contrast, private cars was 56%). The project has introduced a real network in 33 new streets and avenues, and 250 new parking places for bicycles. The impact has been evaluated by two online surveys, one conducted in November–December 2019 just after the inauguration, and the other conducted in January–February 2020. For that, the impact evolution after the first 3 months has also been evaluated. The result allows to analyze the citizens’ response to the new infrastructure; the main conclusion is that the effect of the built infrastructure is clearly positive in terms of new users, new potential users, and bike general image for the citizens. Moreover, this positive effect has grown after the first 3 months.

The Munich Bikeability Index: A Practical Approach for Measuring Urban Bikeability

This research addresses the phenomenon of varying bicycle friendliness in urban areas and considers which elements are necessary to design a city in a bike-friendly manner. It aims to provide a deeper understanding of the term bikeability, in relation to the established term walkability, and methods to create models that measure the degree of bikeability in urban areas. We explain different established models and compare their computational bases. The focus of this paper is to define a computational methodology built within a Geographic Information System (GIS) and a subsequent evaluation based on an investigation area in Munich, Germany. We introduce a bikeability index for specific investigation areas and geovisualize four selected factors of this index. The resulting map views show the road segments of the traffic network where the conditions for biking are adequate, but also those segments which need to be improved.