Browsing by Author "Lovelace, Robin"

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    Infrastructure is not enough: Interactions between the environment, socioeconomic disadvantage, and cycling participation in England
    (Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2021) Vidal Tortosa, Eugeni; Lovelace, Robin; Heinen, Eva; Mann, Richard P.
    Cycling can be particularly beneficial for socioeconomically disadvantaged populations for two main reasons. First, cycling enables access to opportunities that may be unaffordable by other modes. Second, cycling increases physical activity levels and, consequently, improves health. In this context, we analyze the extent to which socioeconomic disadvantage impacts cycling participation and cycling duration for both leisure and utility cycling. Then, we examine whether socioeconomic inequalities in cycling participation can be explained by the environment in which disadvantaged populations live. The study population includes 167,178 individuals, residing in 2,931 areas, and 326 Local Authorities. Data on individual factors were drawn from the Active Lives Survey and data on environmental factors from several sources. Descriptive statistics and multilevel regression models were estimated. We found that the likelihood of cycling is lower among people living in deprived areas than among people living in non-deprived areas. This difference is significant for leisure, but also for utility cycling when controlling for individual and environmental factors. However, cyclists living in deprived areas are more likely to cycle longer per week than cyclists living in non-deprived areas, particularly for utility cycling. We also found that cycling infrastructure and greater levels of cyclability are higher in deprived areas than in non-deprived areas. This suggests that infrastructure and cyclability are not enough to increase cycling levels among disadvantaged populations. Further research on other barriers to cycling among disadvantaged populations is required.
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    The Propensity to Cycle Tool: An open source online system for sustainable transport planning
    (Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2017) Lovelace, Robin; Goodman, Anna; Aldred, Rachel; Berkoff, Nikolai; Abbas, Ali; Woodcock, James
    Getting people cycling is an increasingly common objective in transport planning institutions worldwide. A growing evidence base indicates that high quality infrastructure can boost local cycling rates. Yet for infrastructure and other cycling measures to be effective, it is important to intervene in the right places, such as along "desire lines" of high latent demand. This creates the need for tools and methods to help answer the question "where to build?" Following a brief review of the policy and research context related to this question, this paper describes the design, features and potential applications of such a tool. The Propensity to Cycle Tool (PCT) is an online, interactive planning support system that was initially developed to explore and map cycling potential across England (see www.pct.bike). Based on origin-destination data it models cycling levels at area, desire line, route and route network levels, for current levels of cycling, and for scenario-based "cycling futures." Four scenarios are presented, including "Go Dutch" and "Ebikes," which explore what would happen if English people had the same propensity to cycle as Dutch people and the potential impact of electric cycles on cycling uptake. The cost effectiveness of investment depends not only on the number of additional trips cycled, but on wider impacts such as health and carbon benefits. The PCT reports these at area, desire line, and route level for each scenario. The PCT is open source, facilitating the creation of scenarios and deployment in new contexts. We conclude that the PCT illustrates the potential of online tools to inform transport decisions and raises the wider issue of how models should be used in transport planning.