Promoting the use of bicycles

The bicycle as a means of transportation is important for the green transition since increased bicycle traffic is a precondition in order for many municipalities to achieve sustainable traffic growth.

At the same time, an increased number of bike rides in the local communities will also lead to a more active and attractive urban environment, as well as improving public health and strengthening a bike culture within society.

NIRAS creates both bicycle strategies and comprehensive plans as well as plans for bicycles paths and solutions for parking bikes.

Bicycles for commuting

In many cases people have less than 10 km of transportation from their homes to work, and in many urban contexts a lot of daily travels are less than 10 km. Consequently, many cities hold a huge potential for increasing the use of bikes.

However, the increased use of bicycles will be determined by increasing traffic safety and security for cyclists. Therefore it is necessary to consider these factors when making plans and solutions related to bike paths and roads as well as other types of infrastructure and facilities for bicycles.

We have a long track record of developing analyses and innovative proposals to solve problems related to the safety of cyclists as well as the urban environmental quality.

Cycling can give children increased sense of freedom and self-worth

Children and young people can use bicycles to transport themselves and thereby be less dependant on being transported by adults. One important factor in increasing the bicycle traffic has to do with reducing this sort of parental car transportation, which will help create a better use of the road infrastructure.

We find safe solutions that ensure that children and young people can ride their bikes securely. We achieve this by building an understanding of contexts and by involving users of the bikes and the bicycle infrastructure.
In NIRAS, we work to ensure that mobility planning and initiatives to increase the use of bicycles will help increase the quality of life of children and young people, while also giving increased freedom for all the members of a family.

Bike parking in public space

All bicyclists need to be able to park their bikes, and solutions for bike parking takes up a lot of urban space on both public and private areas.

During the last few years, we have seen new types of bikes in the streets that have another need for parking and locking, and manoeuvring than traditional bikes. NIRAS work on integrating and bike parking and urban spaces while we also take other needs for parking into account.

In addition to physical parking solutions, behavioural tools can be also serve as an important supplement. We carry out analyses of use of parking facilities, occupancy levels, parking behaviour, bicycle types, user profiles, flow in and out, etc.

Behavioural design or initiatives to promote behavioural change can be based on visibility (e.g. placement of bike racks and design), wayfinding (e.g. signage and visibility) as well as nudging (i.e. making it easy and attractive to behave correctly/appropriately).

This applies both in relation to permanent and temporary bicycle parking solutions to ensure optimal and considerate use of the bicycle solutions. Against this background, we therefore see the behavioural aspects as a deeply integrated part of cycling projects.

Services:

• Cycling strategies
• Path connections and path planning
• Bicycle parking and urban space
• Behavioral analyses
• Evaluation of cycling measures