Online TDM Encyclopedia - Evaluating Nonmotorized Transportation

Nonmotorized Modes (Walking and Bicycling, and their variants such as Wheelchairs and Small Wheeled Modes, also called Active Modes and Human Powered Transport) are important components of the transportation system, are often critical to the success of TDM programs.

· They are resource-efficient travel modes (i.e., they consume minimal road and parking space, impose minimal costs on consumers and the environment) that support TDM objective.

· They provide Basic Access. Nonmotorized modes are often critical for trips that society considers particularly valuable, such as access to essential services, education, employment, and social activities by people who are transportation disadvantaged.

· They are a primary component of Universal Design (transportation systems that accommodate people with disabilities and other special needs).

· They provide Transportation Choice and consumer savings.

· They provide Healthy Exercise and enjoyment.

· They help create more Livable Communities.

· They provide access to Public Transit and so are critical to efforts to make transit more practical and popular.

· They support efficient land use, such as New Urbanism, Location Efficient Development and Transit Oriented Development.

Homo sapiens are walking animals. Environments that are conducive to walking are conducive to people. Walking is a fundamental and critical activity for physical and mental health. It provides physical exercise and relaxation. It is a social and recreational activity. Walking is also a critical component of the transportation system, providing connections between homes and transit, parking lots and destinations, and within airports. Often, the best way to improve another form of transportation is to facilitate walking.

However, nonmotorized travel is often overlooked and undervalued. Conventional travel surveys find that only about 2% of total travel is by nonmotorized modes, which implies that it is unimportant, and improving nonmotorized conditions can do little to solve transport problems. But conventional surveys undercount nonmotorized travel because they ignore short trips, non-work travel, travel by children, recreational travel, and nonmotorized links. Actual nonmotorized travel is usually three to six times greater than these surveys indicate (Litman, 2003).

Conventional transport planning assumes that society is better off if somebody spends 5 minutes driving for an errand than 10 minutes walking or cycling, since it applies an equal or greater cost value to nonmotorized trips than motorized trips, only considers vehicle operating costs (vehicle ownership costs, and external impacts such as congestion and parking costs are ignored), and no value is assigned to the health and enjoyment benefits of nonmotorized travel. Such assumptions tend to skew countless planning decisions toward motorized travel at the expense of non-motorized travel. For example, it justifies expanding roadways to increase vehicle traffic capacity and speeds, requiring generous amounts of parking at destinations, and locating public facilities along busy suburban roadways, in order to facilitate automobile transportation although each of these tends to reduce walking accessibility.

Nonmotorized travel tends to be stigmatized. Some people consider walking and cycling outdated, unsophisticated and unexciting compared with motorized modes, or even as symbols of poverty and failure.

Basic Data and Performance Indicators

Certain types of data are useful for evaluating nonmotorized transportation trends and activities. Performance indicators are data collected specifically to measure progress toward objectives. It is useful to establish standard nonmotorized data collection procedures to allow comparisons between different locations and times. The table below lists some types of data that are useful for nonmotorized transport evaluation. Some of this data may already be collected, others will require new data collection activities. Note, however, that conventional travel surveys often undercount nonmotorized travel, particularly walking, because they ignore short trips, and walking links of motorized trips, as described later in this chapter, so improved travel survey methods may be needed. “Disaggregation” describes how this data should be classified.

Table 1 Nonmotorized Transport Data (based on ABC, 2000)

Data Type	Disaggregation
Activity
Percentage of total trips by walking and cycling.	User demographics, trip purpose and geographic area.
Average length of walking and cycling trips.	User demographics, trip purpose and geographic area.
Portion of population that walks or cycles on an average day.	User type, trip purpose and geographic area.
Facilities and Conditions
Length (miles or kilometers) of walking facilities (sidewalks and paths).	Type of facility, quality, geographic area.
Portion of streets and roads with walking facilities.	Type of facility, quality, geographic area.
Length (miles or kilometers) of cycling facilities (bike lanes and paths).	Type of facility, quality, geographic area.
Portion of streets and roads with cycling facilities.	Type of facility, quality, geographic area.
Percentage of bicycle network that is continuous.	Type of facility, quality, geographic area.
Quality of cycling conditions on road network.	Type of facility, quality, geographic area.
Bicycle parking and changing facilities at major destinations.	Type of facility, quality, geographic area.
Equipment
Number of bicycles owned per capita.	Type of bicycles, demographics of owners.
Number of bicycles sold annually.	Type of bicycles, demographics of owners.