New Project to Study Impacts of Bicycle Infrastructure

New research by SURCOM will explore the impacts that investments in bicycle infrastructure have on bicycle use. In recent years, cities across the country have been designing new bicycle facilities, or making improvements to existing ones, to provide additional transportation options to residents and encourage increased bicycling. Types of bicycle facilities include shared lane markings, striped paved shoulders, bike lanes, buffered bike lanes, sidepaths, bicycle boulevards, cycle tracks, and multi-use trails. Planners need to know if investments in bicycle facilities have had the desired effect and which characteristics are most successful in encouraging bicycle use. Knowledge of how street network design and the built environment affect bicycle use is also important.

Objectives of this recently launched study are to estimate the relationships between bicycle facility characteristics and bicycle usage and to determine the importance of street design characteristics and the built environment. Understanding these relationships is important for cities that want to encourage increased bicycle use. It will also show if bicyclists are using roadway design features that are meant to accommodate bicyclists. One of the challenges for research on bicycle use is a lack of bike count data. This study will take advantage of crowdsourced bicycle use data collected from Strava Metro, using Fargo-Moorhead as the study area.

For more information about the project, contact Jeremy Mattson at jeremy.w.mattson@ndsu.edu.