Some surveys indicate that providing bicycle lanes and paths may encourage more people to commute by bicycle. The presence of a striped lane or separated path can increase a cyclist’s perception of safety. With growing concerns over traffic congestion and vehicle pollution, public policy makers are increasingly promoting bicycling as an alternative for commuting and other utilitarian trip purposes. State and local spending on bicycle facilities has increased significantly over the past decade. Previous studies have linked higher levels of bicycle commuting to various demographic and geographic variables. At least one analysis showed that cities with higher levels of bicycle infrastructure (lanes and paths) witnessed higher levels of bicycle commuting. Research was conducted that affirms that finding by analyzing data from 43 large cities across the United States. This cross-sectional analysis improves on previous research by including a larger sample of cities, not including predominantly college towns, and using consistent data from the Bureau of the Census 2000 Supplemental Survey. Although the analysis has limitations, it does support the assertion that new bicycle lanes in large cities will be used by commuters.

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A process is described for predicting traffic volumes along the transportation network of a small city in western Oregon, for which a travel demand model is not available. A cumulative analysis method which considered traffic generated by expected development as well as external traffic traveling through the study area, was used. A buildable lands inventory based on tax assessor records and a geographic information system (GIS) was updated and queried to identify vacant and underdeveloped parcels inside the city limits. The city's comprehensive plan was used to identify expected growth by land use category. GIS tools were used to allocate growth on the basis of the location and attractiveness of available land, its access to urban services, and current plan designations. Peak hour trip generation was calculated with the Institute of Transport Engineers's Trip Generation report. Trips were distributed to the network, following general principles of the gravity model and by using historical traffic counts as a guide. Through trips were identified by using a number of factors including road classification, existing traffic volumes, and historical growth rates. Trips were assigned and used to identify deficiencies on the future transportation network. This process is valuable to cities developing long-range transportation plans in the absence of a travel demand model. The tools needed for this analysis—comprehensive plan, tax assessor data, trip generation rates—are available to cities of all sizes. Innovations in the geospatial analysis arena facilitate this analysis without requiring large investments of time or money.