The implementation of sustainable transport policies: the case of cycle lanes

Abstract

The implementation of sustainable transport practices is vital for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting social equity, economic growth, and healthy living. Cycling infrastructure plays a key role in this effort and its implementation has emerged as a complex problem in the search for sustainable and safe transport systems because the adoption of cycle lanes faces non-technical challenges, and the relationships and patterns of behaviour that impede or facilitate their adoption are not well understood. This research aims to enhance the understanding of the non-technical challenges surrounding the implementation of cycle lanes and uncover the relationships and patterns of behaviour that impede or facilitate their adoption using a combined qualitative and quantitative methodological approach. This research firstly explores the role of narratives (qualitative) in transport research and then uses narratives to capture people's understanding of the implementation process of cycle lanes. The research applies the narrative policy framework to analyse the implementation process of and compare the understanding of the process in three comparable countries with different rates of implemented cycle lanes. Secondly, the research uses an experimental survey (quantitative) to compare perceptions towards cycle lanes across the same countries to explore the relationship between the implementation of cycle lanes with the perceptions of road space and speed limits. The findings of the survey demonstrate that cycle lanes significantly influence the perception of road space and speed limits, thereby identifying previously unexplored relationships between the presence of cycle lanes and the contextual factors of the urban environment that have the potential to shape individuals' behaviour.