In this new publication entitled “What interventions increase active travel?” in Advances in Transport Policy and Planning Eleanor Roaf and colleagues carried out a systematic review to find out what interventions actually increased active.
Well, what this systematic literature review of 79 published manuscripts found was that interventions aimed at changing behaviour without any associated environmental or infrastructure changes had little impact and that such behavioural interventions needed to be repeated for any impact to be maintained i.e. carrots don’t work.
However, interventions combining infrastructure change with social/behavioural programmes had more impact, as did interventions involving e-bikes, and potentially cycle-sharing schemes. Interestingly, interventions involving pedal cycles alone were positive in increasing cycling amongst people on low incomes with limited alternative transport options.
Roaf et al., went on to say that policy makers and planners should stop designing or funding interventions that only address behavioural or social aspects of active travel i.e. carrots don’t work!
Their conclusions were that environmental and infrastructure changes are required to make walking, cycling and wheeling feel safer and more pleasant, including road space reallocation.
So there you have it. Objective, independent indicating that if you build it, they will come.
