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Introduction: Cycling infrastructure policies yield health and environmental benefits. However, design variations may impact intervention effectiveness. This study explored relationships between infrastructure form (e.g., width, length) and function (e.g., access, safety) and cycling behavior. Methods: We analysed data from a study evaluating 15 streets with new cycling infrastructure improvements in Paris and Lyon. Comparison streets were chosen based on having similar pre-intervention cycling trends and periods of data availability as intervention streets. The outcome was the difference in daily cycle counts between intervention and control streets. We conducted a virtual street audit with Google Street View to assess 14 street features and derived a function score based on 7 components. We used induced smoothed LASSO regression to identify relevant form or function variables associated with cycle count changes. Results: The effects of new cycling infrastructure varied, with significant increases at half (7/15) of the sites and no change at the rest. For every 1 SD increase in cycle lane length, an increase of 83 cycle counts per day (95% CI 32, 134) was observed. Removing car parking and traffic lanes were associated with an increase of 197 counts (108, 285) and 154 counts (58, 249), respectively. Adding a public transport stop showed a negative association with a change of −83 counts (−158, −8). Functions positively associated with cycle count changes were improving safety (75, 95% CI 8, 141) and space (72, 95% CI 10, 135). Conclusions: This study sheds light on cycling infrastructure design influences on cycling behavior. These insights can help guide future policies and infrastructure development to maximize cycling benefits for health and the environment.

Background: Cycling is beneficial for health and the environment but the evidence on the overall and differential impacts of interventions to promote cycling is limited. Here we assess the equity impacts of funding awarded to support cycling in 18 urban areas between 2005 and 2011. Methods: We used longitudinally linked 2001 and 2011 census data from 25,747 individuals in the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study of England and Wales. Logistic regression was used to assess the impacts of funding on commute mode as the interaction between time and area (intervention/comparison) in individual-level difference-in-difference analyses, adjusting for a range of potential confounding factors. Differential impacts were examined by age, gender, education and area-level deprivation, and uptake and maintenance of cycling were examined separately. Results: Difference-in-difference analyses showed no intervention impact on cycle commuting prevalence in the whole sample (AOR = 1.08; 95% CI 0.92, 1.26) or among men (AOR = 0.91; 95% CI 0.76, 1.10) but found an intervention effect among women (AOR = 1.56; 95% CI 1.16, 2.10). The intervention promoted uptake of cycling commuting in women (AOR = 2.13; 95% CI 1.56, 2.91) but not men (AOR = 1.19; 95% CI 0.93, 1.51). Differences in intervention effects by age, education and area-level deprivation were less consistent and more modest in magnitude. Conclusions: Living in an intervention area was associated with greater uptake of cycle commuting among women but not men. Potential gender differences in the determinants of transport mode choice should be considered in the design and evaluation of future interventions to promote cycling.

Despite strong evidence for health benefits from active travel, levels remain low in many countries. Changes to the physical and social workplace environment might encourage active travel but evaluation has been limited.We explored associations between changes in the physical and social workplace environment and changes in commute mode over one year among 419 participants in the Commuting and Health in Cambridge study.In adjusted analyses, an increase in the presence of one physical characteristic (e.g. bicycle parking or shower facilities) was associated with a 3.3% (95% confidence interval 1.0–5.6) reduction in the proportion of commutes by private motor vehicle and a 4.4% (95% CI 1.2–7.7) increase in the proportion of trips including active modes among men. These associations were not seen in women.A change to a more favourable social environment for walking or cycling among workplace management was associated with an increased proportion of commutes including active modes in women (4.5%, 95% CI 1.4–7.5) but not men. However, in both genders a change to more a favourable social environment for cycling among colleagues was associated with a reduced proportion of commutes by exclusively active modes (−2.8%, 95% CI −5.0 to −0.6).This study provides longitudinal evidence for gender differences in the associations between workplace environment and commute mode. A more supportive physical environment was associated with more active commuting in men, while the social environment appeared to have more complex associations that were stronger among women.

Summary: Background: Active travel is increasingly recognised as an important source of physical activity. We aimed to describe associations between commute mode and cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all-cause mortality. Methods: We analysed data from the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study of England and Wales (ONS-LS), which linked data from the Census of England and Wales (henceforth referred to as the Census) for 1991, 2001, and 2011 to mortality and cancer registrations. The cohort included individuals traced in the ONS-LS who were economically active (ie, aged ≥16 years, not retired from work, and not a full-time carer). Commuting by private motorised transport, public transport, walking, and cycling were compared in terms of all-cause mortality, cancer mortality, cardiovascular disease mortality, and cancer incidence, using Cox proportional-hazards models with time-varying covariates. Models were adjusted for age, sex, housing tenure, marital status, ethnicity, university education, car access, population density, socioeconomic classification, Carstairs index quintile, long-term illness, and year entered the study, and were additionally stratified by socioeconomic group. Findings: Between the 1991 Census and the 2011 Census, 784 677 individuals contributed data for at least one Census, of whom 394 746 were included in the ONS-LS and were considered to be economically active working-age individuals. 13 983 people died, 3172 from cardiovascular disease and 6509 from cancer, and there were 20 980 incident cancer cases. In adjusted models, compared with commuting by private motorised vehicle, bicycle commuting was associated with a 20% reduced rate of all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR] 0·80, 95% CI 0·73–0·89), a 24% decreased rate of cardiovascular disease mortality (0·76, 0·61–0·93), a 16% lower rate of cancer mortality (0·84, 0·73–0·98), and an 11% reduced rate of incident cancer (0·89, 0·82–0·97). Compared with commuting by private motorised vehicle, rail commuters had a 10% lower rate of all-cause mortality (HR 0·90, 95% CI 0·83–0·97) and a 21% decreased rate of cardiovascular disease mortality (0·79, 0·67–0·94), in addition to a 12% reduced rate of incident cancer (0·88, 0·83–0·94). Walk commuting was associated with 7% lower cancer incidence (HR 0·93, 95% CI 0·89–0·97) Stratified analyses did not indicate differences in associations between socioeconomic groups. Interpretation: Our findings augment existing evidence for the beneficial health effects of physically active commute modes, particularly cycling and train use, and suggest that all socioeconomic groups could benefit. Funding: National Institute for Health Research.