Background: Many cities are putting cycling at the centre of their sustainable transportation policies after the COVID pandemic. Cycling is seen as a desirable mode of transport in dense and compact areas and needs to be promoted accordingly. However, to date, only a handful of different bikeability indexes exist attempting to map biking conditions and the built environment’s potential to promote biking as a modal choice on a city scale. Methods: In this article, we use objective GIS data to map bikeability potential in the city of Barcelona. To do so we extracted the main bikeability components from an adhoc cycling survey and then create an index using ten spatial indicators. This bikeability index is mapped at a 100 × 100 m scale in the city of Barcelona. We then use actual travel behavior data extracted from a local representative travel survey to test the reliability of the index in predicting daily bike use. Results: Results confirm the validity of the bikeability index as a predictor of the frequency of cycling. People living in areas with higher levels of built environment features associated with bikeability such as dedicated infrastructure, low accident rates and small slopes are more likely to use the bike more often. Conclusions: Results validate our approach providing new methods to be used in further biking studies and a useful tool for policy and decision making. The use of our new bikeaiblity index is especially indicated for highly-dense, compact, Mediterranean-style cities.


    Access

    Download


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Built environment bikeability as a predictor of cycling frequency: Lessons from Barcelona


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    2022




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    Unknown




    Bikeability and the induced demand for cycling

    Fosgerau, Mogens / Lukawska, Miroslawa / Paulsen, Mads et al. | ArXiv | 2022

    Free access

    Exploring Bikeability

    Hardinghaus, Michael | TIBKAT | 2021

    Free access

    Exploring Bikeability

    Hardinghaus, Michael | DataCite | 2021


    Bikeability in Basel

    Grigore, Elena / Garrick, Norman / Fuhrer, Raphael et al. | Transportation Research Record | 2019