Walking and Cycling International Literature Review
Final Report
Source: Victoria Department of Transport
This report examines existing literature to better understand how specific soft (non-physical) or hard (physical) measures influence walking or cycling travel behaviour. It is prepared for the Department of Transport (formerly the Department of Infrastructure) in Victoria, Australia, and is to be used by infrastructure professionals and researchers for three purposes:
- to wade through the existing knowledge base related to nonmotorized travel (NMT),
- to identify plausible interventions, and
- to target future research directions.
While walking and cycling for recreation are important activities, the focus in this report is on active and derived travel, that is, the travel individuals do by walking or cycling to engage in activities in other places — work, recreation, shopping, health services (as opposed to travel for the sake of travel such as a walk around the park). The focus on derived travel (sometimes referred to as utilitarian travel) suggests there are different emphases or findings than if we were to focus on recreational travel as well.
The literature review is international but includes only literature in English. In addition, there are many parts of the world with interesting interventions — for example parts of Europe and Latin America — but little rigorous evaluation of such. As this review is of studies that included evaluation rather than description, these interventions are underrepresented.
