BICYCLE RESEARCH REPORT NO. 105

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1 BICYCLE RESEARCH REPORT NO. 105 April 1999 Atze Dijkstra, Peter Levelt and others: THE BEST PRACTICE TO PROMOTE CYCLING AND WALKING EU-Research Paper provides a complete catalogue of steps to be taken to promote walking and cycling in four European countries Key Facts Contents The ADONIS-Catalogue prepared with support from the EU contains over 100 technical and non-technical examples of steps to be taken to promote cycling, walking or both. The examples come from Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain and they are intended to provide a good incentive to the authorities dealing with road traffic, creating good solutions for cycle traffic and pedestrian traffic in order to substitute short journeys made by car on to bicycles or to walking Under the acronym ADONIS in a plan sponsored by the EU-Head Office for Traffic that had been prepared in four countries in 1996/97, research was carried out into how short journeys by car could be replaced by cycling or walking. The work was done by partners from the Netherlands (SWOV), Spam (INTRA), Denmark (RD and DTU) and Belgium (LV). The results of ADONIS have been published in four separate reports. They describe the best practices for promoting cycling and walking whose behavioural -orientated factors influence the type of transport chosen, the accident factors of cyclists and pedestrians and how short journeys by car can be replaced by cycling and walking. A free catalogue of the best practices which is available on CD-ROM or as a report contains a total of 102 descriptions of steps to be taken, 28 of which are technical and 22 non-technical measures for cycle traffic and 42 for pedestrian traffic (see enc.). Each step was explained by means of a common plan. Technical Measures are traffic facilities for blocks of streets and areas for crossing and parking. Examples forming part of the non-technical measures are the promotion of cycling and walking within the framework of politics, educational measures and public information, and organisational solutions. At Highways Departments the catalogue should induce creative processes with thoughts about good ideas. In an appendix to the report there is a comparison of towns with different amounts of walking and cycling embracing the mobility policies of Amster

2 dam, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Brussels and another 22 large and mediumsized towns in Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain. It shows that mobility policies and investments influence the number of pedestrians and cycle traffic. An analysis has shown that increased car-sales can make caruse rise especially at the expense of pedestrian traffic. Sometimes there is competition between the measures for cycle and pedestrian traffic. Among the sixty examples of measures for cycle traffic only eleven are of any use for pedestrians, e.g. when over- and underpasses on cycle routes have a bright open lay-out in accordance with social safety and are used by both parties, or when carefully designed cycle-tracks pass by, especially at bus-stops. Nine of the cycle traffic measures are at the expense of the pedestrian, for example, when cyclists are allowed on former facilities for pedestrians (e.g. pedestrian zone, lakeside paths, etc). Some of the measures described for pedestrians also encourage cycle-traffic (e.g. setting up of a 30 km/h speed limit zone and stopping the building of new out-of-town shopping centres), whilst others hinder cycle-traffic, e.g. changing ordinary streets into play streets without vehicular traffic, or the paving of pedestrian crossings with cobble stones. In order to promote both walking and cycling, steps should be taken that are of mutual interest or that do not harm the others at least. Because the setting up of good traffic facilities based on experience alone is not yet enough to prevent motorists making short journeys by car, a communications strategy should be pursued within the framework of marketing which pays attention to the wishes and convictions of the target groups concerned. Report Authors Source Enclosure Best practice to promote cycling and walking ADONIS Research Report (Analysis and Development of New Insight into Substitution of short car trips by cycling and walking). Research project sponsored by the EU- Head Office for Traffic, ed. Road Directorate, Ministry of Transport, Denmark, Copenhagen 1999 Atze Dijkstra, Peter Levelt (SWOV, Leischendam, NL), Jytste Thomsen, Ole Thorson (INTRA, Barcelona, ES), Jan Van Severen, Peter Vansenant (Langzaam Verkeer, Leuven, B), Puk Kristine Nilsson, Else Jorgensen (Road Directorate, Copenhagen, DK), Belinda la Cour Lund, Jan Grubb Laursen (Technische Universität, Lvneby, DK) ADONIS catalogue and CD free from Lone Sorensen, Road Directorate, Ministry of Transport, Denmark, P.O. Box 1569, DK-1020 Copenhagen K, Denmark, Tel.: , Fax.: , los@vd.dk ADONIS Catalogue of Measures (P = Pedestrian, C = Cyclist) Bicycle Research Report No. 105, April

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