Cycling

The Paris Playbook: What Made Cycling Grow

In recent years, Paris has become something of a poster child for growing cycling, increasing it by 240% between 2018 and 2023 and mode share from 3 to 11%. This research analyses which policies have been most effective.

Key Takeaways

• The research evaluates the impact of various public policies on bicycle growth in Paris over the period 2018–2023.
• The increase in total length of bicycle lanes is the most important factor in increasing bicycle traffic. This is largely because the presence of extensive bicycle lanes enhances both objective and subjective safety.
• The number of bicycle-sharing stations is also a significant factor.
• The impact of the Low-Emission Zone is significant, even though only the initial phases of restrictions have been implemented.
• E-bikes are seen as a good option for new cyclists and a way to make cycling accessible to a broader audience. A reduction in the cost of E-bikes is identified as the third most significant factor encouraging a switch to cycling.
• Despite the rise in the price of public transport, its impact on bicycle traffic is relatively modest.
• The ban on self-service e-scooters had a negligible impact.
• Restrictions on motorised vehicles (e.g. reduced parking) ranked second in effectiveness.
• Once the basic needs are met, additional efforts can be made to improve the comfort and attractiveness of cycling by promoting e-bikes, adding green spaces, and creating pedestrian zones.
• The majority of individuals who transition to cycling do so from public transport, instead of motorised vehicles.
• Livability policies play an important role. The more pleasant and accommodating the city is, the more likely people are to adopt cycling.

Comment

Paris confirms what other research shows - cycling infrastructure must be a priority, and restrictions on motor vehicles are also important. The evidence for the benefits of e-bike financing schemes is stacking up.

The paper rightly focuses on the impacts of policies on cycling. However, the level of political will required to implement the policies has been very significant.

What Next?

To support cycling, do you have policies around restrictions on motor vehicles and e-bike financing as part of your transport mix?

Strategic Planning

Switzerland Rethinks Infrastructure Priorities After Referendum Setback

Switzerland has one of the best transport systems in the world. However, following last year's referendum rejection of the national highway expansion and financial difficulties with their initial rail plans, Switzerland is working through which transport infrastructure projects to prioritise.

This report, commissioned by the Swiss government, provided some recommendations.

Key Takeaways

• The report prioritised potential transport expansion projects across Switzerland, taking into account a predefined funding framework for 2025-2045:
  • CHF 9 billion for national road projects
  • Between CHF 14 billion and CHF 24 billion for railway projects
  • CHF 7.5 billion for urban transport projects.
• The report recommends large, structurally effective projects, supplemented by targeted expansions in capacity-critical network areas.
• Any mobility pricing will hardly have a noticeable impact on capacity bottlenecks in the motorway network, as these now often last several hours.
• Projects with multiple core benefits, e.g. capacity + network redundancy + closing gaps in the network + facilitating large-scale renewals, are given high priority.
• Pure capacity expansions often exhibit low marginal utility due to high costs and low overall added value (e.g., additional highway lanes, railway expansions for timetable densification). In some cases, however, they are unavoidable.
• There are operational and technical alternatives to some pure capacity expansions, e.g. using breakdown lanes on motorways.
• Investments to create redundancy for the major maintenance of key infrastructure (e.g. tunnels) are essential in the event of maintenance or disruption.
• Projects for new bicycle connections are given high priority, especially if they also benefit pedestrians and/or private motorised traffic by separating traffic routes.
• The report also includes some implementation recommendations:
  • The potential of digitalisation and automation needs to be incorporated into all planning processes.
  • Functional and technical standards and norms must be simplified and applied pragmatically.
  • The planning, approval, and implementation processes must be streamlined and further digitised.
  • Projects must be developed according to the design-to-cost principle right from the specification phase.

Comment

It is good that the Swiss government is undertaking a prioritisation process. However, I was surprised to see individual modes given a funding envelope. It would have been desirable to prioritise across all modes - why exclude a rail project if it is more beneficial than a road project?

Interestingly, the authors did not think road user charging would have much of an impact on the motorway network due to the long periods of congestion. There may be some reason why mode switching was not an option.

What Next?

Do you have a clear list of the priority transport infrastructure projects for your region over the next couple of decades?

Fares

What North American Transit Agencies Learned About Low-Income Fare Programs

Regular readers of my newsletter and blog will know that I am not a fan of cheap or free fares. They do not create mode shift, worsen public transport services and increase car dependency.

Rightly, people ask about the impact on low-income households, and so I was interested in this research into low-income fare discounts at public transit agencies in North America.

Key Takeaways

• There was wide variation in low-income fare discount policies and administrative procedures across transit agencies.
• Most low-income fare programs offered substantial discounts off full fares.
• Keeping the process for accessing low-income fare discounts simple for riders was critical.
• Keep eligibility verification procedures simple.
• Coordination with other local organisations working with low-income households was important.
• The immediate distribution of discounts in person or electronically was a benefit to riders.
• Integration with other reduced-fare programs was one strategy that some transit agencies used to simplify fare policies and administrative procedures.
• Enrollment levels were lower than anticipated at some transit agencies.
• Securing sustainable funding was a frequently cited challenge by transit agencies.
• Suggestions for further research included:
  • Analyse changes in travel behaviour in the short and long term.
  • Develop performance metrics and measure success.

Comment

I am not a fan of using cheap public transport for welfare. Firstly, it would be far better for the welfare system to look at people's needs holistically rather than in a fragmented way.

Secondly, lots of people on low incomes are car-dependent because they do not have good public transport services they can access. It would be far better to improve services so they could save money by giving up a car.

Unfortunately, too much of the research in this area narrowly focuses on the impacts on households that already use public transport and ignores the effects on those who can't.

However, if you are going to use public transport for welfare, then the least worst option is to provide targeted discounts instead of low or free fares for everyone to reduce the impact on public transport finances and services.

What next?

Have you fully assessed the impact on well-being from your current transport policies, not just public transport fares?

Quick Adventures in Transport Wonderland

Here is what else I came across this week:

• On-Demand transport: governance, operation, modelling, and integration
• Why do major projects cost so much and take so long? from the Institution of Civil Engineers in the UK.
• Forget EVs. Cycling is revolutionising transport

Blog

Autonomous Vehicles Are Coming—And We're Going to Mess It Up

This week, in my blog, I made 10 predictions about how we will respond to AVs from a policy and regulation perspective. I am not predicting good outcomes.

Tool

LA Metro SetGo Playbook Helps Agencies Plan for Mega Events

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro) has released its Special Event Transportation – Guidance and Opportunities (SetGo) Playbook: a comprehensive resource for managing public transit service for special and ‘Mega’ events.