City streets were built to accommodate cars, but the COVID-19 pandemic has scrambled our transport needs. Many cities are moving to make streets more people-friendly and less car-centric.
A cyclist uses New York’s bike-share program.
Noam Galai/Getty Images
Rapid motorisation has made the Indonesian city of Solo prioritise policies to support motorised vehicles, paying little attention to cycling and marginalising poor women.
Over US$33 billion was invested in mobility tech last year in response to claims it will transform our lives. Based on what we have seen so far, which of these promised solutions will be delivered?
Bike sharing was once proposed as a solution to narrow the cycling gender gap — but it may be further widening this gap.
Rue des Tournelles, Paris, November 5, 2019. Four Voi scooters wait hopefully for potential clients, with a Lime and Dott sprawling nearby. Behind them, a Velib’ rider has made his choice.
Leighton Kille/The Conversation France
In major cities around the world, dockless scooters and bikes are everywhere, yet the companies themselves are often breathtakingly short-lived. Basic economic concepts give us clues why.
Many rarely used bikes end up languishing in the shed.
peace baby/Shutterstock
Where bikes are kept is a strong pointer to the place of cycling in the owner’s life. Effective active transport policy starts with understanding what stops people using their bikes instead of cars.
Combining big data sources about bike-share trips with anonymized data from traditional survey research can best capture who is using bike-share programs.
Taxis have traditionally competed for kerbside space in our cities, but they now have many new competitors.
Neil Sipe
Every day, e-scooters and helmets are put out together, but some people ride without helmets and at the end of each day helmets are missing. So what can be done to ensure safe riding behaviour?
Cycling advocates set up ‘ghost bikes,’ like this one in Brooklyn, in memory of bikers killed in traffic.
Nick Gray
Minorities are driving the bicycling boom, but bike infrastructure investments often neglect their needs. A new study explores what riders in low-income and minority neighborhoods want.
The early popularity of shared e-scooters suggests they can be a valuable part of the mix of transport options in Brisbane.
Albert Perez/AAP
Researchers looking at Australia’s first trial of e-scooter sharing find the Brisbane public has embraced this mode of transport. They make five recommendations to deal with issues that have emerged.
Public bikes are meant to complement a city’s existing mass transit network, so the location of docking stations is critical.
MusikAnimal/Wikimedia
Under 10 percent of new Citi Bike and Divvy bike docks are sited where residents suggested using interactive online maps, a new study shows. But that doesn’t mean city officials weren’t listening.
Most of Kyoto’s narrow streets could become no-car zones.
The city where the Kyoto Protocol was signed resolved some years ago to move away from cars and towards low-emission alternatives for getting around. And it’s making real progress towards that goal.
If cyclist-friendly cities like Copenhagen can offer abundant and conveniently sited parking space for bikes, why not Australian cities?
Grey Geezer/Wikimedia
If cities had backed their active transport goals with investment in adequate cycling infrastructure we might not be having the arguments about dockless bikes ‘littering’ public space.