Open AccessProvisional COVID-19 infrastructure induces large, rapid increases in cycling
Author(s) -
Sebastian Kraus,
Nicolas Koch
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011
H-Index - 771
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.2024399118
Subject(s) - cycling , covid-19 , context (archaeology) , pandemic , variety (cybernetics) , business , environmental economics , computer science , economics , geography , biology , medicine , disease , archaeology , pathology , virology , artificial intelligence , outbreak , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Significance Active travel makes people healthier and creates a wide range of additional social and environmental benefits. The provision of dedicated infrastructure is considered a crucial policy to increase cycling. However, evaluating the impact of this type of intervention is difficult because infrastructure changes are typically slow. The rollout of so-called pop-up bike lanes during the COVID-19 pandemic is a unique empirical context to estimate the pull effect of new cycling infrastructure. We show that the policy has worked. We find large increases in cycling. This result is robust for a variety of empirical counterfactuals. Further research is needed to investigate whether this change is persistent and whether similar results can be achieved in situations outside the context of a pandemic.