Business incubators are one of the newest tools on the enterprise development scene; nearly 400 are now in operation. A business incubator is a facility that provides affordable space, shared office services, and business development assistance in an environment conducive to new venture creation, survival, and early-stage growth. This article is a preliminary examination of the relationships among incubator structure, policy, services, and performance. A value-added continuum model is used to describe various kinds of incubators and aspects of their operations. Managers of 127 incubators were surveyed to examine features of the value-added continuum. Surrogate measures for the concepts that anchor either end of the continuum—property development and business development—are empirically examined. Incubators are found to be poor real estate ventures. Age and size of facility are found to be important determinants of jobs created and firms graduated. Only one other structure, policy, or services variable is important for explaining business development outcomes.

Conventional wisdom suggests that if bicycle pathways are provided, people will use them. This assertion is based on a combination of anecdotes, a few case studies, and mostly wishful thinking. Until now, there have been no cross-sectional studies of the association between bicycle pathway supply and commuting by bicycle that control for a variety of factors. Cross-sectional analysis, controlling for a variety of extraneous factors, can help to attribute differences in bicycle commuting to the overall supply of pathways. Cross-sectional data are applied here to 18 U. S. cities to help fill this gap in research. After considering such factors as weather, terrain, and number of college students, a positive association was found between miles of bicycle pathways per 100,000 residents and the percentage of commuters using bicycles. It is speculated that one problem with shifting the mode of commuting away from automobiles may simply be an inadequate supply of bicycle facilities. Although this work is the first of its kind, more systematic research is needed to confirm its findings.

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The popularity of bicycles in North America is growing. As the popularity of bicycles has increased, so has the physical network of separate bicycle facilities and designated bicycle lanes in many locations. As a consequence of this growth, there is a demand for more information about bicycle operations on these facilities. Unfortunately, the state of knowledge regarding bicycle operations in the United States currently lags far behind that of motor vehicles and pedestrians. The international research that has been conducted to date regarding bicycle operations on uninterrupted facilities is thoroughly reviewed, and recommended procedures for the operational analysis of uninterrupted bicycle facilities are outlined. The recommended procedures are based on the concept of “frequencies of events” involving a bicyclist and other bicyclists or facility users. Events are defined as bicycle maneuvers required by a bicyclist on a facility, including passings (same-direction encounters) and meetings (opposite-direction encounters). The frequency of events for an uninterrupted bicycle facility is related to the service volumes of bicycles using or projected to be using the facility and does not have to be observed directly. The proposed procedures are, therefore, recommended based not only on their theoretical substance but also on their ease of use by practitioners.