The relationship between bicycle traffic and the development of bicycle infrastructure on the example of Warsaw

Abstract

The article presents the relationship between the intensity of bicycle traffic volume and the development of bicycle infrastructure on the example of Warsaw. There has been a big increase in cycling over the last decade. At the same time, the linear and point bicycle infrastructure developed very strongly. Similar trends are also observed in other cities in Poland. The article presents the types of infrastructure available to cyclists. Then, the method of assessing the bicycle infrastructure is presented, taking into account the five features of good bicycle infrastructure: cohesion, directness, attractiveness, safety and comfort. In terms of coherence, the analysis covered the bicycle infrastructure network in the vicinity of the measurement site. The directness was tested by checking the accessibility of several dozen of the most important nodal points of the city's communication network. The attractiveness was examined by checking the availability of public bike stations, bicycle racks and bike-sharing stations. The infrastructure adjusted to the technical class of the road was adopted as a measure of safety. The comfort was checked by analyzing the quality of the road surface, which affects the driving comfort and energy expenditure. All the factors presented impact the cyclist's assessment of the infrastructure. To standardize the assessment rules, an aggregate index of the development of bicycle infrastructure was determined. The analysis was carried out for 10 sample points for four consecutive years. The points were characterized by different bicycle infrastructure, location in the city road network and different results of bicycle traffic measurements. The analysis showed a strong positive relationship between traffic and cycling infrastructure for most of the analyzed places. There was a negative dependence in the case of the construction of alternative routes in relation to the place of traffic measurements. The obtained results are the same as in the works of other authors. However, the effects of work do not allow to determine which of the examined factors is the cause and which is the effect but only show the existing relationship.