Provisional COVID-19 infrastructure induces large, rapid increases in cycling

Kraus, Sebastian; Koch, Nicolas

doi:10.1073/pnas.2024399118

Cited by 174 publications

(85 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The extent of expansions for about 20 specific cities are shown in Table 1. Kraus and Koch (2021) analyzed cycling levels at 736 locations in 106 European cities that built a total of 1209 km of provisional, pop-up bike A survey of 524 cities in Europe, the Americas and Asia found that the reallocation of some traffic lanes to walking and bicycling was the most common mobility response. Examples of bike facility expansions: London (100km), Dublin (7km), Lyon (14km), Paris (80km), Barcelona (21km), Genoa (30km), Brussels (27km), Berlin (24km), Rome (16km), Florence (10km), Milan (67km) Lisbon (12km), Budapest (10km), Krakow (10km), Izmir (27km), New York City (102km), Austin, TX (19km), Chicago (48km), Boston-Cambridge (18km), Montreal (88km), Toronto (45km), Washington, DC (10km), Atlanta (18km), Sydney (7km).…”

Section: Government Measures To Promote Cycling During Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 Impacts on Cycling, 2019–2020

2021

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The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on travel behaviour in most of the world. This editorial examines the available evidence about the impact of the pandemic on cycling in various cities and countries of Europe, the Americas, and Australia to establish overall trends in cycling from 2019 to 2020 as well as variation over time, by location, by trip purpose, and by type of cycling facility. We also report trends in bicycle sales in different countries. Finally, we examine the nature and extent of government measures to accommodate and encourage increased cycling. Cycling levels and bicycle mode shareEco-Counter operates automatic bicycle trip counters at key locations in European and North American cities. As shown in Figure 1, there is considerable variation in percentage changes in cycling levels between 2019 and 2020 among EU countries as well as among regions of the USA and Canada. The comparisons are between both full years, including periods of lockdown in 2020. The 11 EU countries averaged an overall 8% increase in cycling, but with a much larger increase on weekends (+23%) than on weekdays (+3%). The USA averaged 16% growth overall, but similar to the EU, with higher growth on weekends (+29%) than on weekdays (+10%). Canada averaged a 3% increase, but again more (28%) on weekends, and a decline of 8% on weekdays (Eco-Counter, 2021). The much smaller increase (or decline) in weekday cycling is probably due to overall declines (all modes) in travel to work, university, school, and shopping due to lockdowns, closures, and travel restrictions. Many daily trips, including utilitarian bike trips, were replaced by remote working, learning, and shopping. In contrast, many countries, including the USA, have permitted outdoor walking and cycling for physical activity as exceptions to travel restrictions during lockdowns. That helps explain the large increase in cycling for exercise and recreation, which in turn helps explain the much larger increase in cycling on weekends compared to weekdays, as confirmed by almost all the evidence we examine throughout this editorial.Three sources confirm the strong growth in recreational cycling in the USA, which is mainly on weekends. Rails-to-Trails, which coordinates 41,082 km of off-road, mainly recreational, multiuse trails (shared with pedestrians), reports an average increase of 48% in usage between 2019 and 2020, including both walk and bike trips (RTC, 2021). The East Coast Greenway, which runs from Florida to Maine, reports an average increase of more than 50% in usage (again including cyclists and pedestrians) from 2019 to 2020, but with considerable variation from one trail segment to another (ECG, 2020). A detailed analysis of automatic counter data (specifically identifying bicycles) at locations throughout the state of North Carolina (NC) found large increases in cycling on off-road recreational greenways but declines in cycling in and to commercial areas and university campuses (Geiger, Kearns, & Searcy, 2021), similar to the findings of a study of COV...

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Section: Government Measures To Promote Cycling During Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 Impacts on Cycling, 2019–2020

2021

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“…In contrast, bicycling emerged as a preferred mode of travel. Excluding periods of lockdown, year-on-year cycling increased 67% in Paris, 43% in Barcelona, and 17% in New York City-a trend that was likely encouraged by many cities' expansion of cycling infrastructure (Buehler and Pucher 2021;Kraus and Koch 2021). Survey data from Thessaloniki, Greece (Nikiforiadis et al 2020), and Sydney, Australia (Lock 2020), indicated increased public willingness to rely on cycling, and survey data from the United States revealed increased intention to bicycle following the pandemic (Ehsani et al 2021).…”

Section: Changing Modes Of Travel?mentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19, the Built Environment, and Health

Frumkin

2021

Environ Health Perspect

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BACKGROUND: Since the dawn of cities, the built environment has both affected infectious disease transmission and evolved in response to infectious diseases. COVID-19 illustrates both dynamics. The pandemic presented an opportunity to implement health promotion and disease prevention strategies in numerous elements of the built environment. OBJECTIVES: This commentary aims to identify features of the built environment that affect the risk of COVID-19 as well as to identify elements of the pandemic response with implications for the built environment (and, therefore, for long-term public health). DISCUSSION: Built environment risk factors for COVID-19 transmission include crowding, poverty, and racism (as they manifest in housing and neighborhood features), poor indoor air circulation, and ambient air pollution. Potential long-term implications of COVID-19 for the built environment include changes in building design, increased teleworking, reconfigured streets, changing modes of travel, provision of parks and greenspace, and population shifts out of urban centers. Although it is too early to predict with confidence which of these responses may persist, identifying and monitoring them can help health professionals, architects, urban planners, and decision makers, as well as members of the public, optimize healthy built environments during and after recovery from the pandemic.

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“…Many local governments prioritised support for the greener economy including measures to promote cleaner transportation and the creation of bicycle lanes in urban areas. 37 The COVID-19 pandemic also re-emphasised the importance of urban agriculture as a way to strengthen local food production and create resilience to shock affecting food production. 38 The global reduction in human activities led to a transitory reduction of daily emissions of CO 2 .…”

Section: Resilience In Different Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building a multisystemic understanding of societal resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic

et al. 2021

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The current global systemic crisis reveals how globalised societies are unprepared to face a pandemic. Beyond the dramatic loss of human life, the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered widespread disturbances in health, social, economic, environmental and governance systems in many countries across the world. Resilience describes the capacities of natural and human systems to prevent, react to and recover from shocks. Societal resilience to the current COVID-19 pandemic relates to the ability of societies in maintaining their core functions while minimising the impact of the pandemic and other societal effects. Drawing on the emerging evidence about resilience in health, social, economic, environmental and governance systems, this paper delineates a multisystemic understanding of societal resilience to COVID-19. Such an understanding provides the foundation for an integrated approach to build societal resilience to current and future pandemics.

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Provisional COVID-19 infrastructure induces large, rapid increases in cycling

Cited by 174 publications

References 25 publications

COVID-19 Impacts on Cycling, 2019–2020

COVID-19 Impacts on Cycling, 2019–2020

COVID-19, the Built Environment, and Health

Building a multisystemic understanding of societal resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic

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