The evaluation of large cycling infrastructure investments in Glasgow using crowdsourced cycle data
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The evaluation of large cycling infrastructure investments in Glasgow using crowdsourced cycle data Jinhyun Hong1 · David Philip McArthur1 · Mark Livingston1
© The Author(s) 2019
Abstract The benefits of cycling have been well established for several decades. It can improve public health and make cities more active and environmentally friendly. Due to the significant net benefits, many local governments in Scotland have promoted cycling. Glasgow City Council constructed four significant pieces of cycling infrastructure between 2013 and 2015, partly in preparation for the 2014 Commonwealth Games and partly to encourage cycling more generally. This required substantial capital investment. However, the effectiveness of these big new infrastructure investments has not been well examined, mostly due to data limitations. In this study, we utilised data from the activity tracking app Strava for the years 2013– 2016 and fixed effects panel data regression models to examine whether the new cycling infrastructure has increased cycling volumes on these routes. Our results show that three of the infrastructure projects have a positive effect on the monthly total volume of cycling trips made by users of the app, with flows up by around 12% to 18%. Although this result is promising, it needs to be interpreted with care due to the characteristics of the data. Keywords Cycling · Infrastructure · Crowdsourced data · Strava
Introduction The benefits of cycling have been well documented in several studies (Woodcock et al. 2009; Oja et al. 2011; Cavill et al. 2008). Among other things, it can improve public health and make cities more active and environmentally friendly. Even though cyclists are vulnerable to emissions and traffic accidents, several studies have found significant net health benefits of cycling and physical activities (Mueller et al. 2015; De Hartog et al. 2010; Celis-Morales et al. 2017). In many European cities, local governments have promoted cycling to make their cities more active and sustainable. For example, the cycling action plan for Scotland * Jinhyun Hong [email protected] David Philip McArthur [email protected] Mark Livingston [email protected] 1
Department of Urban Studies, The University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
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developed several strategies (e.g., leadership and partnership, infrastructure, integration and road safety, etc.) to achieve a vision of having 10% of everyday journeys made by bicycle by 2020, with cities being a key driver for achieving this (Transport Scotland 2017). Glasgow City Council has also committed to cycling by increasing funding and building new infrastructure (Glasgow City Council 2015). Specifically, the strategic plan for cycling 2010–2020 included diverse action plans to prepare for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games (Glasgow City Council 2010), a major sporting event held in the city. The city council wanted to use the games as a catalyst to increase cycling and therefore also planned to install in
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