Effect of pop-up bike lanes on cycling in European cities

TL;DR

This study assesses how temporary pop-up bike lanes in European cities have increased cycling traffic, with significant health benefits, by analyzing extensive bicycle count data and infrastructure projects over a decade.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on the positive impact of provisional bike lanes on cycling rates and quantifies associated health benefits across multiple European cities.

Findings

Each kilometer of pop-up bike lane increases cycling by 0.6%.

Average 11.5 km of pop-up lanes per city.

Estimated $2.3 billion annual health benefits.

Abstract

The bicycle is a low-cost means of transport linked to low risk of COVID-19 transmission. Governments have incentivized cycling by redistributing street space as part of their post-lockdown strategies. Here, we evaluate the impact of provisional bicycle infrastructure on cycling traffic in European cities. We scrape daily bicycle counts spanning over a decade from 736 bicycle counters in 106 European cities. We combine this with data on announced and completed pop-up bike lane road work projects. On average 11.5 kilometers of provisional pop-up bike lanes have been built per city. Each kilometer has increased cycling in a city by 0.6%. We calculate that the new infrastructure will generate $2.3 billion in health benefits per year, if cycling habits are sticky.