active transportation

This article is a literature review of 300 empirical studies looks to bridge the gap between academic findings and effective transportation planning in North America. Ultimately, the authors find that only an integrated range of built environmental features, pricing policies, or education programs—not small, isolated interventions—have any effect.

Their more provocative discussions and findings include the authors’ assertion that while bicycle and walking modes should be promoted together, the facilities should be planned on their own. Also, they find that actual crash data fail to support claims that separated bicycle facilities are safer. This is because most conflicts (i.e. crashes) occur at intersections.

For pedestrian design, they found that specific facilities were less important than overall community design—like Reid Ewing did in “Contribution of Urban Design Qualities to Pedestrian Activity” (2016)—in promoting the mode.