Traveler Response to Transportation System Changes Handbook, Third Edition: Chapter 16, Pedestrian and Bicycle Facilities (2012) / Chapter Skim
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effects and anticipates them at the outset within the impact analysis research and model design. A number of the newer studies listed in Tables 16-82 and 16-83 illustrate movement in this direction, albeit mostly in an exploratory context.
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An important first step, however, is to have a clear understanding of NMT trip accounting peculiarities involving mode share definitions and coverage. Many standard regional and national household transportation data sources identify and count NMT travel only if it is the "prime" or primary mode, in other words, only if an NMT mode is used exclusively for the entire trip from an origin to a separate destination.
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travel purposes made exclusively by walking that have been derived from the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Household Travel Survey (NHTS)
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Three survey and analysis protocols affecting trip data in Table 16-85 are important to understand, especially given that the protocols differ from historic metropolitan trip-based survey and analysis procedures. For walking in connection with a trip via transit, the walk access to transit and the walk egress from transit are conflated into a single one-way walk trip (the walk component of a "transit trip")
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ble short-term 1970s gas-crisis responses, since the gasoline rationing of World War II. Other 2001 versus 2009 comparisons are displayed in Table 16-85.
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Inspection of Table 16-86 shows that the percentages of people reporting zero trips up through four trips per week all decreased by roughly 10 percent between 2001 and 2009. The percentage reporting six trips per week stayed the same, while the percentages reporting five, seven, and eight or more trips a week all increased.
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There is a methodological enhancement, and thus inconsistency, between the NPTS and NHTS surveys that must be taken into account. Survey protocol changes were made for the 2001 NHTS survey that were designed to capture previously unreported walk trips.
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within trip destination areas that may or may not be picked up in surveys like the NHTS. The research obtained completed face-to-face interviews with about 1,000 patrons of 20 retail pharmacy stores located throughout the midsection of the San Francisco Bay Area.
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2.4 percent of all trips in that county to be by bicycle, while the 2001 NHTS-based estimate was 1.0 percent. Three 21st Century Los Angeles County commute mode share estimates are virtually identical, however: 0.61 percent from the 2000 U.S.
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16-306 Access Mode All 14 Systems Systems Classified by Size Multi-Modal Systems Small Medium Large Bus Rail Bicycle 0.6% 0.3% 0.8% 0.3% 0.3% 0.8% Walk 67.0 84.8 61.9 62.6 74.0 47.7 Auto Driver 9.6 2.0 10.7 13.5 4.0 20.5 Auto Passenger 3.4 1.6 3.9 4.2 2.5 5.5 Bus/Train 19.3 11.3 22.7 19.5 19.1 25.2 Notes: Small-sized systems (0 to 500,000 service area 1997 population) include Grand Rapids, MI, Kenosha, WI, and Lincoln, NB.
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Walking in connection with transit service occurs in greater magnitudes. Tables 16-88 and 16-89 indicate that -- across 14 systems -- 67 percent of transit route riders starting from (or returning to)
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Characteristics of Walking and Cycling Overall A number of tabulations of pedestrian and bicycle trip and trip-maker characteristics were presented in the "Underlying Traveler Response Factors" section, in support of examining influences on NMT choices. In addressing "Characteristics of Walking and Cycling Overall," these tabulations will be referred to as appropriate.
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value of 10 minutes. Some 23 percent of walk-only trips were a mile or more in length, while 13 percent were 30 minutes or more in duration (Kuzmyak et al., 2011)
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Reporting of the 2002 summer survey performed by NHTSA and BTS also provides comparative walk and bike trip distance data, but from a different perspective. This survey utilized a variant of the "most recent trip" inquiry methodology in that it recorded active transportation data for the day (within the last 30 days)
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Trip Purposes Utilitarian walking and bicycling trips are, overall, usually made for the same reasons as motorized utilitarian trips. Common utilitarian purposes include going to work, shop, or school (and returning home)
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Of all 2009 walk-only trips, 61 percent were in trip purpose categories primarily associated with utilitarian travel, and 37 percent were in categories primarily associated with recreation or exercise.64 Walk to/from transit trips had an even higher utilitarian travel proportion, at 83 percent, with over 6 times the percentage of work commute trips. Of transit access/egress trips, 30 percent were to and from work, 11 percent were to and from school (or school-related library trips or placeof-worship-related trips)
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Mean distances were not available for walk to/from transit trips. Walk-only mean distances ranged from 0.5 to 0.7 miles for school, shopping, visiting friends and relatives, health services, and other personal business categories.
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• Auto Ownership: Table 16-78 under "Automobile Ownership," and the demonstration that active transportation use is several times higher in households without cars. • Education: Table 16-79 under "Education," and accompanying analyses indicating that while the least educated have the highest NMT mode shares, once factors such as housing patterns (including densities and neighborhood walkability)
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The information in Table 16-96 indicates that 51 percent of walk trips take place on facilities specifically constructed for pedestrian or other NMT use -- sidewalks and paths/trails. Another 41 percent of walk trips take place on roads.
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Neither of the facility-use distributions presented above separately identifies use of bicycle boulevards. This reflects the small number of such facilities nationwide and the fairly recent recognition, beyond a few "early adopter" localities, of this facility type as more than a niche application.
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Pedestrian activity effects of mixed land use have been addressed in the "Response by Type of NMT Strategy" section (see "Pedestrian/Bicycle Friendly Neighborhoods") and in Chapter 15, "Land Use and Site Design," there under "Response by Type of Strategy" -- "Diversity (Land Use Mix)
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intersections, were selected for study on the basis of having supportive bicycle and pedestrian facilities. Two each were in College Station, Austin, Houston, and Dallas.
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A suburban CBD weekday hourly variation example is provided in the "Case Studies" section (see Table 16-128)
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from the State House and within 1/2 block, eight sidewalk counts along office and commercial frontage ranged from 1,200 to 2,700 pedestrians each, averaging 2,100 pedestrians. Further away, up to three blocks, eight additional lunchtime sidewalk counts ranged from 400 to 1,400, averaging 900.
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interplay of noontime Twin Cities Skyway use versus use of parallel crosswalks. Observed Skyway volumes slumped in summer and rose in winter, volumes on the parallel crosswalks did the opposite, and the total of the two stayed within plus or minus 10 percent throughout all 12 months of the year (Heglund, 1980)
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There are, of course, major variations in CBD pedestrian trip purposes by time of day. During the AM peak period, most trips originate at home and manifest themselves as walk trips between a parking place or transit stop and a place of CBD employment.
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These two surveys only indirectly address the question of whether the observed walk trips were walk-only or multimodal. Also important is that central Toronto and Lower Manhattan are areas of intensive public transit service.
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bicycle facilities. Palo Alto is a university town with a long-standing bicycle-friendly reputation, but is also part of the larger Silicon Valley environment.
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three top bicycling destinations (on or off the bicycle boulevard) were social/recreational (82 percent)
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Wednesday, June 13, 2007, hourly variation data for two San Diego paths (not previously introduced) exhibit quite different pedestrian and bicyclist activity patterns over a 24-hour period.
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A major contrast is provided by the second path, the Mission Beach Bicycle Path, an urban waterfront facility that is recreational in focus with many destinations. Here the pedestrian traffic of about 870 walkers was 43 percent of the counted path traffic total of roughly 2,020.
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The path traffic distributions in Table 16-106 were obtained from classification counts and surveys that were apparently all taken at on-trail intercept points. As discussed in the "Overview and Summary" (see "Analytical Considerations")
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Lindsey et al., 2006) , and the trail locations used may not have been entirely comparable.
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Path and Trail Purposes of Use. Table 16-109 provides trip purpose information for the five paths or groups of paths among those listed in Table 16-106 that surveyed this information.
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One other item of special interest that comes from the surveys reported on in Table 16-109 pertains to the three Texas trails. Almost all of the 14 percent three-trail work-based out-and-back trips noted in table Note E took place on Houston's Buffalo Bayou Trail, representing 42 percent of the users of that one trail.
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the Blackstone Valley bike path where use for walking dominated. A similar relationship among trails was found on the three Texas facilities, with females at 48 percent on the Shoal Creek Trail where walking dominated, while the three-trail average essentially matched the Hennepin County experience with a 63/37 split of males versus females (Gonzales et al., 2004, Shafer et al., 1999)
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$40,000 and $80,000, and about 45 percent reporting higher incomes (Shafer et al., 1999)
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Prior or Alternative Modes of New Facility Users Radial Off-Road Paths in Melbourne. The Melbourne evaluation of substitute modes of path users provides the more straightforward example of travel behavior shift research findings, because the results are not complicated by multi-mode trip recombinations.
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opened in October, 2001. It for the first time provided an NMT connection between the south end of the CBD -- and adjoining university -- to South Bank residential and mixed-use areas, cheaper automobile parking, an additional south-of-river commuter railroad station, and key express bus stops.
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Table 16-112 augments Table 16-111 by displaying and giving percentages for the full array of prior modes reported by Goodwill Bridge Mode Changers. As can be seen in both tables, commuter rail, bus, and auto are together prominent in the prior mode arrays.
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Mode Shares "Before and After" Mode shares obtained before and after infrastructure improvements provide less precise insights on shifts than actual prior mode data, because they do not give explicit information on what users of a new mode were doing previously, except possibly by inference. Such data are nevertheless quite useful, and in some instances increases in use of particular modes together with decreases for others provide a basis for judging what users attracted to newly enhanced modes were doing previously.
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The motorized transportation and NMT facility usage outcomes presented in Table 16-113 are displayed in order of increasing numbers of months required after opening for stabilization of usage to occur. The ordering is very instructive.
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Next in Table 16-113 are a demand responsive bus system in outer Washington suburbs of Northern Virginia and bus routes designed to connect outlying jobs with urban pockets of unemployment in Los Angeles and on Long Island. In these examples, there were no previous viable transit connections, so all riders had to have made substantial travel adjustments.
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AM peak bicycle volumes grew nearly sevenfold in the first 12 years of St. Kilda Road bicycle lane operation, from 66 in 1993 to 459 in 2005.
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the initial 1980 count. Five years following the point selected as representing the reaching of stabilized usage for purposes of Table 16-113, the Burke-Gilman and Sammamish River Trails were joined.
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measure of exposure. Traffic exposure measures that have been used include distance traveled, time duration of travel, and number of trips (Beck, Dellinger, and O'Neil, 2007)
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The pedestrian and bicyclist crash rates per trip were also analyzed by gender and age group. Roughly speaking, males are on the order of twice as prone to crashes as females.
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All of these crash statistics involve estimation of the exposure measure. None are as accurate for pedestrians and cyclists as for motorized forms of transportation.
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with their associated walking. This issue potentially pertains whether the exposure measure is miles/kilometers, trips, or hours, although the hours-based fatal crash rate research presented above (Chu, 2003)
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logistic curve takes an "S" shape, starting to move upward more sharply above 20 to 30 km./hour (12 to 19 miles per hour [mph]
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Foreign Versus U.S. Safety Comparisons Pedestrian and bicycle crash fatalities have each declined in the United States over the past quarter century or more.
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• Education and training -- grade school classroom instruction and on-facility cycling lessons, mandated driver training, and motorist license exam testing of pedestrian and bicyclist crash avoidance skills. • Traffic regulations and enforcement (strict compared to the United States)
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A relative danger index (RDI) was calculated as the fraction of bicycle crashes reported for a particular facility type divided by the fraction of kilometers ridden on that facility type.
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data suggest it presents greater risk compared to other cycling environments. Safety issues on sidewalks include conflicts with other people, poles, and sidewalk furniture, and most importantly, conflicts with driveway, alley, and street intersection vehicular traffic.
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and Lewiston, 1994)
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along with other initiatives (listed above) -- for the very low bicyclist injury rate in that country.
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from 12 to 2 percent. The buffered bike lanes were placed on a one-way couplet, SW Stark and State Streets, that had not had bicycle lanes previously.
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Effects of crosswalks per se on crash severity that were isolated in the 2000-crossings study were not statistically significant, but there appeared to be more fatal and serious injury crashes in marked as compared to unmarked crosswalks on multilane roadways. This may be related to the greater tendency of elderly persons to choose marked crossings over unmarked crossings, noted in the "Street Crossings" subsection cross-referenced above (Zegeer et al., 2005, Chu, Guttenplan, and Kourtellis, 2007)
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In the context of this marked-crosswalk dilemma, it has been observed that "doing nothing for established [pedestrian] demand is not sound public policy" (Chu, Guttenplan, and Kourtellis, 2007)
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the crashes reviewed occurred while the bus was turning and 25 percent occurred when the bus was at or near a stop. Both the data and the perception by transit agency staff underscore the importance of safe crossings for pedestrians accessing transit and of addressing pedestrian safety during bus turning maneuvers (Pecheux et al., 2008)
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Public Health Issues and Relationships Health is defined by the World Health Organization as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." Health is enhanced by physical activity directly and also indirectly through avoidance of excess body weight associated with inactivity. Inadequate physical activity is one of four primary risk factors for obesity, along with poor nutrition, caloric intake in excess of calories expended, and genetic predisposition.
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4 mph (15 to 20 minutes per mile) qualifies.
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in the city of Columbia, Missouri; Sheboygan County, Wisconsin; and Spokane County, Washington. Combined 2006–2007 walking/cycling frequency and duration results for the five communities are provided in Table 16-119.
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More narrowly focused research, carried out by the CDC, has determined that 29 percent of public transit users achieve the recommended 30 minutes or more of physical activity a day simply by walking to and from their transit service. This research employed a rigorous examination of the previously described 2001 NHTS travel data for all trip purposes, focusing on adults.
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Physical inactivity and excessive caloric intake are the key contributors to the energy imbalance associated with obesity, a critical public health problem (Committee on Physical Activity, Health, Transportation, and Land Use, 2005)
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Adult Physical Health and Activity Relationships. Three studies highlighting the inverse relationship between active transportation and physical disease are summarized in Table 16-121.
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The 3rd study, a 2010 "Benchmarking Project" covering U.S. bicycling and walking, related levels of walking and cycling to work with rates of high blood pressure and diabetes at the state level.
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lower risk of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias (Rovio et al., 2005)
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16-365 Study (Date) Process (Limitations)
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16-366 Study (Date) Process (Limitations)
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16-367 Study (Date) Process (Limitations)
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16-368 Study (Date) Process (Limitations)
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16-369 Study (Date) Process (Limitations)
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Those of the studies in Table 16-123 that went beyond walking sufficiency to seek relationships with overall exercise sufficiency, and particularly with body weight and health, faced two layers of analytical burden. Not only were they subject to confounding exogenous transportation and physical environment factors, they were also exposed to additional socio-economic and cultural factors.
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notable result of finding land use mix to be positively related to higher BMIs. Each of the other five studies, as well as two studies earlier in the Table 16-123 listing, find some measure of mix to be negatively related to obesity or BMI, or positively related to physical activity.
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steps removed from the urban form variables .
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The considerably expanded pace of empirical investigation into relationships between the built environment and walking in particular provides a continuing flow of additional information. Perspective is provided by a 2005 and early-2006 update of not only the review in TRB Special Report 282 (Committee on Physical Activity, Health, Transportation, and Land Use, 2005)
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• Active travel policies offer the potential for large public health benefits through physical activity increases, combined with smaller benefits accruing from transportation pollution reduction. Information provided on crash and pollution risks in this international review is contained within the upcoming "Tradeoffs Between Health Benefits and Crash/Pollution Disbenefits" discussion.
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One subdivision of daytime events/activities examined employed 19 different event types. (Swimming, which might be considered a 20th type, had to be omitted.)
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of maps drawn. Children driven to school were, for example, less accurate in recalling locations of local area landmarks (Mackett et al., 2007a)
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16-377 Studies Process (Limitations) Key Findings 1.
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In considering the findings in Table 16-125, it is useful to establish context by quickly examining the role of non-transportation physical environment effects on childhood physical activity. It is also important to note that relationships between the physical environment and the physical activity of children differ from those of adults.
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of life years gained from the increased physical activity of bicycling far outweigh any possible negative effects in life-years lost from injuries or fatalities. It was estimated that the aerobic exercise provided by bicycling compensated for crash risk by a factor of 20 to 1 in terms of average life expectancy (Hillman, 1992, Zegeer et al., 1994, Reynolds et al., 2010)
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largely cross-sectional (de Nazelle et al., 2011, Bhatia and Wier, 2011)
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parks and various forms of exercise facilities. On the other hand, it has been found that persons who engage in both active transportation and other exercise forms have the highest likelihood of meeting minimum activity recommendations.
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long-term growth. Count-based studies of the Minneapolis and St.
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use paths are attractive for learning cyclists, inexperienced cyclists, and new exercisers, predominantly walkers. Two flat trails developed on old railroad roadbeds (rail trails)
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to decrease need for an automobile, are other examples. These are key strategies that remove barriers to walking and bicycling for utilitarian purposes, but have not been studied in isolation to assign exercise encouragement or health effects to them.
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NMT Policies and Programs. Similar to the situation with pedestrian and bicycle system expansions and interconnections, exercise and health effects have not been empirically derived for instances of translating policy into substantial city-wide non-motorized transportation programs, although promising forecasting has been done in connection with policy planning in U.S.
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seen in some instances where individuals have been induced to try an active transportation mode they have had little direct experience with, as in a bike-to-work-day event. As marketing becomes more focused, short-term results become more positive, though long-term impacts have been little studied and dissipation of beneficial effects is a major concern.
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areas thanks to present-day walking and cycling choices. Refined estimates along with energy and emissions savings calculations are expected as part of the final pilot program documentation (Krizek et al., 2007)
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Facility and Project Impacts A different perspective is provided by estimates of the traffic and emissions reductions attainable from individual new pedestrian and bicycle facilities and programs. An evaluation and assessment of Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ)
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Program Impact Model Findings Bicycle program estimates of energy savings are available from a "Conserve by Bicycle Program Study" conducted by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT)
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16-390 set, skewed as it was towards the more urban and walkable parts of King County, may have contributed to this lack of strong statistical significance as well as to insignificance of variables such as residential density and intersection density -- known to usually relate importantly to VMT and CO2. Such limitations notwithstanding, the study results still provide early evidence of the potential effectiveness of sidewalk availability for reducing VMT and CO2.
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16-391 Societal Economic Impacts On the one hand, as observed in NCHRP Report 552: Guidelines for Analysis of Investments in Bicycle Facilities, "the majority of past [NMT benefit-cost] work has a clear advocacy bent; it is not always known how and where much of the data are derived" (Krizek et al., 2006)
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16-392 Another benefits listing, this one from the perspective of bicycling, is provided by NCHRP Report 552. "Mobility" is first listed, focusing on the ability of cyclists to reach their destinations faster, more safely, and via more attractive routings when provided with bicycling improvements.
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16-393 CDC studies and other research provide background perspective on health benefits. The CDC has estimated that direct medical expenses attributable to sedentary behavior totaled over 76 billion dollars nationwide in 1987, expressed in year 2000 dollars, for the 88 million inactive Americans 15 years of age or more and without physical limitations.
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of life saved was included. The calculations explicitly excluded opportunity costs, and utilized a discount rate of 3 percent (Gotschi, 2011)
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fixed-route bus service instead of having to receive and rely on federally-mandated ADA paratransit door-to-door service. MTA estimates its fully-loaded cost of ADA paratransit at $76.64 per oneway trip.
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Many examples of this benefit-cost analysis approach predate the inclusion of the walk-only and bicycle-only travel modes as options promoted by individualized marketing. In those early (1990s)
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the Washington and Old Dominion (W&OD) facility in Northern Virginia.
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Land Values and Off-Road Paths. The economic benefits of shared use, off-road paths and trails have been fairly extensively reported upon, although many of the available studies have focused on rural rather than urban-area facilities.
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obtained. It was noted that such estimates represent an approach to valuing "amenity or ecological values" of greenways that accrue with or without active use (Lindsey et al., 2004)
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Trail economic studies introduced in the "Recreational Benefits" discussion did, nevertheless, develop an estimate of total spending as a matter of general interest. The trail, very much oriented to use by local residents, was found to generate about $5.3 million annually in local economy expenditures by local resident users.
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Sales increased by 30 percent on Copenhagen's Stroget, consisting of three contiguous streets in the main shopping district, after it was closed to motor vehicles in 1962. In East Anglia, England, London Street merchants saw sales increases of 5 to 20 percent.
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A benefit-cost estimate prepared in advance of Des Moines skywalk system implementation estimated a total annual benefit of $561,600 relative to an annualized cost of $375,000 (values in 1978 dollars)
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to the poor and minorities of good accessibility to daily activities and transit stops for persons traveling on foot. Walking is not only the most affordable of all transportation modes, but also it is the most important means of reaching public transit.
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shares for zero-car households (2.4 percent) (see Table 16-78)
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noted, however, that as the trail system expanded it would become more focused on higher-income populations with smaller non-white components (Lindsey, Maraj, and Kuan, 2001)
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