Successful bicycle policy guidelines and audit for midsize cities

Date

2011-12

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Abstract

In the United States, the bicycle has been a historically underutilized mode of transportation. However, recent political and economic trends have enabled the bicycle to become a much more viable means of transportation that should be integrated into multi-modal transportation systems. This thesis is the culmination of research initially conducted on behalf of the Texas Department of Transportation and carried out to further investigate the claims made in that initial report to TxDOT. This research was conducted to determine how bicycling can be effectively integrated into a multi-modal system and what factors lead to successful bicycling. The research was conducted in three phases. The first was an analysis of bicycling data gathered through an online survey. This produced a series of key findings and recommendations for governments wishing to improve and/or implement bicycling into their transportation systems. The second phase was conducted to further that analysis with statistical methods, including a correlation study. This second phase corroborated the findings of the first phase and produced a set of general guidelines to follow for bicycle policy implementation. The final phase of the research sought to conclude the project by deriving from all the previous findings a usable audit form by which cities can grade their level of bicycle implementation. The goal of this audit is to be a timely addition to current bicycle knowledge; this simple yet powerful tool is easy to use but should be intuitive enough to allow users to see areas in which to improve. This research is a crucial addition to the state of practice for bicycling as a mode of transportation and should provide the foundation for future efforts in promoting bicycling as a vital means of transit.

Description

Keywords

Transportation, Bicycling commuting

Citation