Everyday Cycling in Urban Environments: Understanding Behaviors and Constraints in Space-Time - Computational Approaches for Urban Environments - page 181

(North East England), incremental steps are taken by the local authorities to provide
cycling infrastructure, albeit at a slow rate compared to the uptake of cycling in the
commuting area. As a result, there appears to be increasing dissatisfaction from local
campaign groups about the lack of a coherent cycling strategy, negative attitudes
towards cyclists, and even the refusal of the local public transport providers to allow
bicycles on the metro system (MacMichael 2012 ).
Although cycling is increasing in Britain, it still remains relatively low, about
2 % of trips shorter than 2.5 km, compared to other European countries like 37 %
for the Netherlands and 27 % for Denmark (Pucher and Buehler 2008 , p. 498).
Even in cities like Copenhagen with high cycling uptake, further research is being
undertaken to deepen understanding of what constrains or enables cycling (Meyer
2011 ; Snizek et al. 2013 ). The last decade has seen annual increase of pedal
cycle traffic in Britain from 4.4 billion kilometers in 2002 to 5 billion kilometers
in 2012 with some fluctuations in between (DfT 2013a ). The consensus on the
benefits of cycling is growing among researchers, and the means - the how -by
which cycling uptake could be realized is the confronting issue (Pucher et al. 2010 ,
p. S107). Given an emphasis on how , the importance of infrastructure (i.e., the built
environment) and planning for cycling together with cyclists' movement behavior
is inescapable. Docherty and Shaw ( 2008 , p. 125) argue that the major factors
constraining everyday cycling have a primary relationship with the environment
in which it takes place. Cycling is a safe, convenient, practical, and healthy means
of transport (Pucher and Buehler 2008 ) and relatively cheaper than other modes.
British cities such as Newcastle upon Tyne lack appropriate spatial data along with
associated processing methods to support local transport planning. An example is
the decision by UK Department for Transport (DfT) not to use GPS to collect travel
data in the national travel survey 2013 onwards partly as a result of lack of GPS
data processing methodologies (Guell et al. 2012 , p. 4). This work is, in part, a
response to existing calls, for further research to incorporate the investigation and
discovery of cyclists' perceptions and actual experiences (NICE 2012 ;Forsythand
Krizek 2011 ; Skinner and Rose 2007 ), to support urban designers and transportation
engineers, and for cycling policy interventions.
One of the major goals for transportation and spatial planning is the provision
of accessibility (Dijst and Vidakovic 2000 ). The freedom of accessibility is rooted
in the nature and architecture of the built environment. This freedom, one way
or the other, has been compromised and historically been offered to motorized
road transportation. The dominance of motorized road transportation policies has
rendered and given little or no room for cycling transportation policies in the UK. As
Pucher and Buehler ( 2008 ) note, “ :::Government policies are at least as important:
transport policies, land-use policies, urban development policies, housing policies,
environmental policies, taxation policies and parking policies. In many respects, the
UK and the USA have given the green light to the private car, almost regardless of its
economic, social and environmental costs. In sharp contrast, cycling has prospered
in the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark over the past three decades precisely
because these countries have given the red light, or at least the yellow warning light,
to private cars.”