The Potential of Cycling for Sustainable Mobility in Metropolitan Regions The facts behind the Success Story of Innsbruck

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1 Title: The Potential of Cycling for The facts behind the Success Story of Innsbruck Authors, affiliations and addresses: Ferdinand Pospischil University of Innsbruck, Austria Markus Mailer University of Innsbruck, Austria Corresponding author: Markus Mailer Abstract Cycling is very popular in Innsbruck, the capital city of the Austrian Province of Tyrol, and a very important part of daily traffic. Since the last mobility survey carried out in Tyrol in spring 2011 showed a share of 23 % of daily trips done by bicycle the city of Innsbruck is regarded as the Cycling Capital of Austria. Not only the high number of trips done by bicycle but also significant increase compared to the preceding mobility survey in 2002 (13 % trips by bike) is remarkable. On the other hand private car traffic was reduced significantly in this period of time. This change of mobility behavior has both causes in and effects on environmental, economic and social development, i.e. on sustainable development in this city. This rather pleasant circumstance was the motivation for investigating the reasons of this change and further potentials. The paper will give detailed analysis of the patterns and motivation of bicycle use in Innsbruck. It will highlight the role of cycling in the mobility of people living in Innsbruck and investigate the development of cycling in the last decade. Analysis of the background in Innsbruck will be done in comparison with other cities in Austria and a prognosis for the future will be given.

2 This is done by analyzing the development of bicycle traffic in Innsbruck, beginning with the first traffic concept in It shows the evolution of cycling in traffic planning, the development of cycling facilities and the resulting number of cycling trips in Innsbruck. The main part of this paper is based on detailed analysis of the patterns of bicycle use in Innsbruck by evaluating the data of the last mobility survey carried out in 2011 in detail. In addition to this extensive analysis the plausibility of the astonishingly high share of bicycle trips in Innsbruck is checked. Further investigations are done to find out the reasons how such a very high increase of bicycle use can be achieved. The new government of the city wants to reinforce the positive trend of cycling. Present strategies and future steps to achieve this goal are presented. Keywords: sustainability, Mobility, Bicycle, Modal Split, Mobility Behavior

3 1 Cycling in Innsbruck An Introduction The City of Innsbruck is situated in the Valley of the River Inn in the Alps. Because of southerly winds coming down the Brennerpass Innsbruck s climate is relatively warm and dry. Although the boarders of the municipality reach up to m the main part of the city is situated on the floor of the valley at 570 m and the city has a very compact structure. For these reasons and the tectonically conditions a lot of young mountain-sport-enthusiastic people live and study in Innsbruck (23 % of the inhabitants are students 1 ) and cycling is a popular means of transportation in all seasons. Therefore cycling has a great influence to mobility and urban life, which was underlined by the mobility survey in 2011 where the number of trips by bicycle in Innsbruck reached a share of 23 % of all daily trips. In this papar first the development of biking in Innsbruck will be shown and then a closer look will be made at the mobility survey from 2011 looking for the details behind the high cycling share. 2 Motivation 2.1 Cycling as a sustainable means of transport To get a better understanding of the significance of cycling as a sustainable means of transport a short definition has to be given first. Well known is the European commission statement that Sustainable Development stands for meeting the needs of present generations without jeopardizing the ability of futures generations to meet their own needs. 2 Understanding that mobility is the basis for people to fulfil their needs (existential, social, ) by enabling them to carry out activities related to this needs in different locations, means of transport are essential for meeting the needs of people. Taking into accout that the idea of sustainability also demands to keep this social dimension of mobility in balance with economical and ecological aspects, cycling is a very sustainable means of transport by giving people the possibility to travel in an affordable, healthy, safe, resource-efficient and environmental friendly way (Fig. 1). Thus cycling has an important role in the sustainable development of cities and metropolitan areas. 1 Resource: Students listings of the University of Innsbruck, WS 2013/14 2 (European Commision, 2014)

4 Fig. 1: cycling as a sustainable mean of transport (referring to (VCÖ-Forschungsintitut, 2009)) When looking at the health benefits of cycling, it is also important to look at the risk of riding a bike. Since cylists have a high active safety, i.e. low threat to the safety of other people, but a low passive safety, i.e. high vulnerability, the safety of a cyclist is related to a rising awareness of cyclists in the traffic. However, comparing the growth of the population from 2002 to 2011 in Innsbruck with the bicycle accidents in connection with the modal split it can be said that with the growing number of citizens +6 % and the growing number of trips done by bike ( % to %) there has been a reduction of accidents (see Fig. 2). This is due to the higher number of cyclists in the daily traffic and the higher awareness for bike traffic. In conclusion this proves findings that the risk of traffic accidents with bicycles is decreasing with the number of cyclists taking part in the traffic 3. By saving space and resources cyling makes further important contributions to sustainable transport. The space required to transport one person by bike is only a ninth of the space used in average per person in a private car. 4 Not only the space required whilst in use but also when parking 23 hours of the day the space consumed is a lot less for a bike (especially valid for parking areas in the city for shopping, at train stations, ). Compared to a road in the inner-city a bike path requires not even the half width and is more compatible for the environment and more acceptable for the townscape. 3 e.g. Jacobsen, Referring to (Schaffer, 2012)

5 Population Number of accidets Year Population in Innsbruck Trend of the injured cyclists Injured cyclists Fig. 2: Population in Innsbruck and accidents including cyclists (interpretation of data from (Kuratorium für Verkehrssicherheit, 2014) and (Stadt Innsbruck, 2014)) 2.2 Cycling in Innsbruck the cycling capital of Austria Referring to the VCÖ s 5 comparison of the bike shares in the modal split in the capitals of the Austrian Provinces (see Fig. 3), Innsbruck has the highest percentage in Austria with 23 %. It has to be noted that the data comes from different surveys reducing the validity of the comparison. However, while in the last few years all other cities listed had a slight increase of the cyclists share none of them achieved a growth like Innsbruck. 25% 23% 20% 20% 18% 18% 15% 12% 12% 10% 5% 6% 6% 5% 0% Innsbruck Bregenz Graz Salzburg St. Pölten Klagenfurt Wien Linz Eisenstadt Fig. 3: Bicycle shares in the modal split of the province capitals in Austria (2011) (Verkehrsclub Österreich) 5 Verkehrsclub Österreich

6 travel time [min] This emphasises the current value of cycling in Innsbruck and is motivation for in-depth analyses of the survey from 2011 to better understand the reasons for cycling in Innsbruck. One of these reasons is the very dense urban structure of Innsbruck. Its area of settlement spans about 8 km from the east side to the west side and about 6 km from North to South. Because of this fairly small area and with 82 % of all trips in Innsbruck having a distance of less than 5 km and 88 % of all trips with relation to Innsbruck stay within the city boarders, the (time) advantage of cycling, that is shown in principal in Fig. 4 plays a major role. This is underlined by the fact that 94 % of the bike trips in Innsbruck are within the distance of 5 km distance [km] by foot by train by bus by car by bike Fig. 4: Travel f time related to distance with different modes of transport, according to (Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband e.v., 2009) Another reason for this frequent use of bikes in Innsbruck could be the young population. This is shown in the chart availability of bikes in Fig. 5. In comparison to the availability of cars it can be said that in the age group 21 to 30 years 80 % have permanent access to a bike whereas only 24 % of them have the chance to use a car at any time. Comparing these numbers to the rest of Tyrol (59 %) the availability of car is quite low (45 %). This is a result of the rural structure of the country on the one side and the high parking pressure, the good public transportation system and the dense structure in the city of Innsbruck on the other side. This trend was already visible in the survey of Looking at the age group of the 6 According to (Neyer, 2013)

7 available at any time [ %] cyclists in Innsbruck it can be stated that the bike is mainly used by the people in their 20ies (80 %) to to to to to to in total Agegroup [Years] Bicycle Car Fig. 5: Availability of bicycles and cars in Innsbruck (2011) [based on data by (Neyer, 2013)] A different perspective is given in Fig. 6, comparing availability of different means of transport with the income of the households. It can be stated that the bicycle is subject to two trends, one of them showing the benefit of the bike as an affordable means of transport, decreasing with the income and the other one showing an increasing availability of the bike with growing income, which has to be seen in connection with a higher education and a higher environmental awareness. In contrary to the bike the availability of a private car is directly connected with a rising income only.

8 80% 60% 61% 44% 43% 65% 47% 67% 54% 70% 68% 40% 20% 20% 29% 32% 28% 21% 23% 0% < EUR to EUR to EUR to EUR > EUR Bicycle Car Public commutation ticket Fig. 6 Availability ( always available for Bicycle and private car and available for public transportation season ticket) in connection with household net income (Basis: People Innsbruck-City, weighted random sample) Since Innsbruck has a fairly young and sportive population, many inhabitants are close to nature and are likely to consider cycling as their contribution for a better environment. The bike is not only used as a means of transportation for daily trips but furthermore leisure trips have a great share with 28 % (see Fig. 8) of cyling trips 7. Cyling for health reasons and cycling as a sport is well practiced in Innsbruck. A dense mountain bike path system within the city boarders provides the perfect area for this sport (in the area around Innsbruck there is a total mountain bike track length of km) 8. 3 Traffic-concepts, surveys and developments in Innsbruck In the beginning of the1970ies Innsbruck s struggle with private car traffic lead to a need for a transport plan. On the basis of a traffic survey carried out in 1971 the importance of bicycle traffic was already shown. However, in comparison with today s numbers (Fig. 8) the share of leisure related trips by bike had a significantly lower importance (9 %). From today s perspective the very low number of only 9 % (28 % in 2011) of the trips taken by bike for purpose of leisure could be a first sign of the changing bike behavior and the trend towards more local mobility of the youth. 7 Even though the relevance of cycling was stressed in the report, there were no actions scheduled to improve cycling conditions. 7 (Neyer, 2013) 8 (Lang, 2013)

9 In the next transport plan of 1982 for the first time the city of Innsbruck defined a cycle track concept. In the following eight years the number of independent cycle infrastructure was raised from 4 km up to 22 km. These affords were already acknowledged in the traffic survey of 1993 where 13 % of all trips have been reported by bike (within a distance of 1,1 km up to 3 km the highest number of 21 % was reached). By 2002 the measures with new cycle lanes and separated bike paths made an impact in a survey where 91 % of the respondents stated, the city center is quite satisfactory accessible by bike. Since then further measures like new bike bypasses under bridges and the paving of gravel bike paths have been realised. The current length of bike paths in Innsbruck has risen to a number of 93.5 km. 7 4 The traffic survey in 2011 The next and latest mobility survey was carried out from March to July 2011 in all of Tyrol on behalf of the government of Tyrol and the city of Innsbruck. It was held in the KONTIV 9 design in a three-part questionaire set 10.and was send out to a random sample number of domestic homes 11 With only 15 % the return rate was much lower than in the preceeding surveys of 2002 (84 %) and 1992 (82 %), in which the participants were frequently asked to answer via telephone. For this reason another 128 people got questioned via telephone and a statistic correction was applied to balance the survey. Still the responding sample was only 0.8 % of the residents. Looking at the development of the modal split (Fig. 7) it can be stated that less people use cars as passenger or as drivers and the bicycle use increased about the same amount. It has to be noted that there are differences in the data base since in 1993 trips were surveyed for all seven days and in 2002 and 2011 only for working days. In 2002 not only people in Innsbruck were interviewed but also from the surrounding villages, where only 3 % of bicycle use was determined (7 % in 2011). For this reason the bike share in 2002, seen separately only for the city of Innsbruck, would be higher. 9 Kontiv: continuous survey of the traffic behavior Personal data; 2. Trip- protocol; 3. Room for improvements or inspirations; 11 in all of Tyrol

10 100% 80% 29% 27% 27% 29% 60% 40% 20% 13% 13% 1% 1% 15% 16% 11% 4% 31% 38% 23% 22% 1% 1% 16% 16% 5% 5% 28% 26% 0% Innsbruck 1993 (> 6 years of age) Innsbruck 2002 (> 14 years of age) Innsbruck 2011 (> 14 years of age) Innsbruck 2011 ( >6 years of age) car driver car passenger public transport motorcycle bicycle by foot other Fig. 7: Modal Split of the trips - comparison for Innsbruck 1993 (Mon. Sun., weighted) 2002 (Mon. Fri., nonweighted) 2011 (Mon. Fri. weighted) (Neyer, 2013) Looking now at the purpose of cycling trips (Fig. 8) in Tyrol as well as in Innsbruck most of the bike trips (28 %) are related to leisure acitivities. However, about 60% are related to daily duties. Since most of the inhabitants work closely to their homes, the bike share of work related trips is also high with 26 %. Due to the high number of students and pupils the share of education related trips is at 13 %. This has to be seen in context with the availability of private cars as shown in Fig. 5 and the fact that most of the people in this age group are going by foot or are using public transport. Comparing these results with all trips (not only done by bike) it shows that people tend to use their bicycle more frequently for trips related to work and education than for shopping trips (low ability to transport goods).

11 100% 1% 2% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 28% 5% 9% 15% 13% 3% 26% Bicycle trips 31% 5% 9% 19% 10% 5% 19% all trips Work Work-related Education Shopping Family/personal business Pick up / delivery Social/recreational Other Fig. 8: Bicycle trip purposes, comparing Tyrol, Innsbruck and trips within Innsbruck (Basis: persons in all of Tyrol, and Innsbruck, weighted data) 6 5 Reasons for the increase, the potential of cycling and further steps to reinforce the positive trend Biking in Innsbruck can be seen as a lifestyle and this is supported by a great number of biking communities and campaign groups nationwide as well as within the city boarders. Within these there are efforts to get the very young citizens to ride a bike, like the program BIKEline 12 and to win them as early adopters. But also for daily commuters there is a statewide bike challenge called Fahrrad Wettbewerb with the motto biking for climate protection 13. At the moment Innsbruck is about to launch a bike rental system as known from Vienna or Nuremberg. Relating to the city size of Innsbruck 14 public and up to 7 private locations are planned. 14 Innsbruck s local public transportation company IVB supports the use of bikes since 1998 already with the offer to transport bikes free of charge in their busses and trams 15. This offer is especially used for a connection to the upper parts of the city and to reach the leisure (Hillebrand, 2014) 15

12 zones. The special offer by the local transportation company in the winter months, to transport people with ski gear for free and a very good service to reach the close by ski resorts and a very close recreation Zone around and within Innsbruck supports the basic idea of an no need for a car community. As stated above (Fig. 4) trips under the 5 km distance are perfect to be done by bike and trips less than 1 km are often done by foot. The survey shows that 43 % of all trips taken (related to Innsbruck) are between 1 km and 5 km long, i.e. in cycling distance. 26 % of them are already done by bike, 17 % done by public transportation, 21 % by foot and still 35 % by private car. So, only one third of the trips are not taken with the green modes but there is still a potential for Innsbruck, even with having a bike share of 23 % already. 16 On the other hand due to the high increase of the bicycle share on daily trips from 2002 to 2011 the validity of this figure has been questioned eventually. For this reason NEYEr (2013) had a closer look at the methodology and possible influencing factors like weather and traffic conditions. One reason for the high increase of trips taken by cyclists in Innsbruck could be an overrepresentation of students and the cyclist friendly community in the sample of Comparing population and the responding sample there really seems to be a little bias. But on the other hand there has been a very significant change in the population as well. The number of students has increased from in 1992 to in 2002 and to in By taking a closer look NEYER said that in 2002 a great number of car drivers replied. So the number of trips taken by bike was significantly too low in this survey and the numbers in 2011 seem to be more accurate. Looking at weather conditions the periods of the two surveys can be compared with the long time weather record. In 2002 the survey was carried out in autumn between September and December, in 2011 in spring from March until June. As shown in Fig. 9 the average temperature in 2011 was higher and at the same time there was less rainfall than in During the survey in 2011 there were more than double as many bright days as during the survey in In conclusion compared with the long time data spring 2011 was very cycling supportive. Apart from these facts the cyclists share also has to be seen as a result of subjective temperature awareness. Coming out of the cold winter People are happy to ride 16 Data from (Neyer, 2013) 17 (Stadt Innsbruck, 2014) and (Universität Innsbruck, 2013)

13 [days]/[ C] rainfall [mm] their bike in spring even if it is only e.g. 14 degrees but feeling uncomfortable riding at these temperatures in September. However, it has to be noted that in Innsbruck cyclists seem to be rather weather resistant resulting in a high number of people cycling also in winter. Roadworks have an impact to the daily car traffic but not so much on cyclists since their ability to sneak through queuing cars for a rapid progress. But during both survey times 2002 and 2011 there was no evidence for traffic conditions that would have had impact on the cyclist s share of the daily traffic 18. Although there have been quite a view small road construction sites, no significant influence for a higher share of cyclists could be confirmed. With the rapid rise of cyclists the question occurs which group changed their behavior. According to the public transportation company (IVB) in Innsbruck they do have a similar gain of passenger numbers than the increase of the population in Innsbruck. And since the daily trips taken have been nearly constant it seems to be the drivers of private cars who changed their behavior. A possible connection to fuel prices that has shown a rise of 70 % from 2002 to 2011 has been investigated, too Sept.-Dec. ø Sept.-Dec Mar. - Jun. ø Mar. - Jun Evaluation Time ø day temperature [ C] Days with rainfall bright days [cloudiness 20%] clouded days [cloudiness 80%] Rainfall 18 According to the Bike coordinator of Innsbruck Helmut Krainer as stated in (Neyer, 2013).

14 Fig. 9: Weather situations during the surveys in comparison with the longtime average [interpretation of (Neyer, 2013) and (Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik, Kundenservice für Tirol und Vorarlberg, 2013)] Prior to the survey in 2011 there have been a few infrastructural improvements to foster cycling as mentioned already. For example a new established bridge over the River Inn (New Orleansbrücke) for pedestrians and cyclists, underpasses at the other Inn bridges (Freiburger Brücke, Prinz Eugen Brücke and Grenobler Brücke), extensions of the bike paths in the city center as well as connections to the suburbs and bituminization of the Inn bike path. In Addition to the newly established and upgraded bike paths the opening of one way roads improved the bike net to a total length of 93.5 km. Furthermore the supply of more official bike parking in the inner city was improved from (year 2000) to about (year 2010). 6 Conclusions This paper analyses Innsbruck's trend of the bike share in the modal split from 2002 until today. It outlines that the fast growth from 13 % in 2002 up to 23 % of daily traffic in 2011 is not only a result of an improved infrastructure, changing social behaving and a huge number of encouragements and initiatives but also an outcome from a possibly underestimated share in 2002 and a high share due to favourable conditions in In 2002 the answering rate of the biking community seemed to be low but in 2011 rather high and an exceptional fine weather period in the spring of 2011 supported the use of bikes. The availibility of bicycles in Innsbruck is throughout all age groups high, with the highest rate between 20 and 30 years and independently from income it is higher than the availability of private cars. The bicycle is mainly used for work and recreational trips within the city boarders. The statement of the VCÖ that Innsbruck is the cycling capital of Austria is based on comparing data from different surveys. In the years 2013 and 2014 in Austria started the survey Österreich unterwegs measuring the mobility in all of Austria with the same concept for a better comparability. The high share of daily bike traffic in Innsbruck already has an impact to the rising safety of cyclists and the awareness of them being a part of the traffic. Even with a critical view on the 23 %, the origin and its reasons, this number shows the potential of cycling in Innsbruck and also that even a higher share on daily trips can be achieved. In connection with continuously growing numbers of students and new initiatives like the upcoming Stadtrad bike rental system Innsbruck is going to further improve the bicycle traffic as an important part of the sustainable development of the city.

15 References European Commision. (25. March 2014). Sustainable Development - Environment. Abgerufen am 25. March 2014 von Hillebrand, T. (2014). Nextbike Innsbruck. INNBUS GmbH. Jacobsen, P.L. (2003). Safety in numbers: more walkers and bicyclists, safer walking and bicycling. Injury Prevention 9/2003, p Kuratorium für Verkehrssicherheit. ( ). Fahrradunfälli in Innsbruck. Wien. Neyer, T. (2013). Fahrradverkehr in Innsbruck. Innsbruck: Institut für Infrastruktur, Arbeitsbereich Intelligente Verkehrssysteme der Universität Innsbruck. Schaffer, T. (26. Jannuary 2012). Wie viel Platz bruachen Bus, Auto und Rad in der Stadt? Abgerufen am 25. March 2014 von Stadt Innsbruck. (2014). Statistiken / Zahlen. Abgerufen am 18. March 2014 von Universität Innsbruck. (06. December 2013). Archiv der Semesterstatistiken. Abgerufen am 18. March 2014 von VCÖ-Forschungsintitut. (2009). Soziale Aspekte von Mobilität. Abgerufen am 26. March 2014 von =391&Itemid=3 Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband e.v. (14. August 2009). In jeder Situation intelligent mobil. Abgerufen am 19. March 2014 von on_intelligent_mobil.htm Verkehrsclub Österreich. (kein Datum). Abgerufen am von Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik, Kundenservice für Tirol und Vorarlberg. (März 2013). Meteorologische Daten. Innsbruck. Acknowledgment The authors would like to thank Thomas Neyer, who carried out the analysis of the mobility data and additional analyses in his Master Thesis.,