Policies and measures to promote bicycle usage in starter cycling cities: the case of Lisbon

Book of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017The role of policies and strategies in the promotion of bicycle usage in urban transportation is a key subject regarding the future of sustainable mobility in developed cities. This paper’s intent is to contribute with a critical review on the meanings and particularities of cycling policies and measures, focusing on their nature, implementation procedure and levels of operability, while exploring their role in the ‘future’ of urban mobility in cycling starter cities. Hence, a general review of published studies on existent procedures, which directly and indirectly influence bicycle usage, is presented recurring to contemporary peer-reviewed and ‘grey’ literature. To illustrate the paper’s findings and argument, a case study is also presented, focusing on Lisbon’s cycling network. Preliminary findings suggest that cycling policies can be described as a set of programs developed with the intent of establishing direct and indirect rules and actions, envisioning the increase of cycling. They vary in both nature (physical, soft, complementary and knowledge measures) and implementation (short-run and long-run procedures), and are particularly effective when developed and executed at a local level. Thus, it can be argued that cycling policies and strategies can play a key role in the promotion of cycling as urban transportation and that the importance of such measures and actions differ per city’s cycling development stage. This paper also supports that the success of bicycle usage in cities is strongly dependent on both political will and resolve and on a comprehensive approach, one that provides a coordinated and integrated package of crosscutting multi-level policies and measures.Published versio