Cycling Research Board Annual Meeting

Interventions that enable more people to choose active modes are often evaluated in terms of the number of people travelling by walking or cycling. Less attention has been paid to who is changing mode. This is especially relevant in many ‘low cycling’ countries, where the few people who do cycle are often disproportionately working-age men. Do increases in the number of people choosing to cycle merely continue such imbalances? Or do they enable more women and children to choose cycling? What effect do they have on other characteristics, such as the types of cycles used and whether people choose to wear high-visibility clothing or helmets?

Looking at London’s recently implemented low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs), we developed a method to measure the observable characteristics of people walking and cycling before and after the LTNs were implemented, compared with matched controls. Our method involved human-coded video analysis of street users across the day. We found an increase in the proportion of people cycling who were women or children, suggesting that these interventions may improve the equity of participation in cycling in the areas where they are implemented. We found no clear evidence of changes in other cyclist characteristics, which may suggest that such changes are more strongly influenced by other factors. We also suggest that future evaluations of the effects of active travel interventions should seek to consider who participates, not only how many people participate.