Vitality from Walking and Cycling

Vitality from walking and cycling presents results from PYKALA II –project which was carried out in 2009-2013 in Transport Research Centre Verne of Tampere University of Technology. The aim of the project was to produce new knowledge in order to tap into the potential for walking and cycling even better. The four components of the project were increasing the share of cycling in urban traffic, pedestrian areas as part of city life, developing the monitoring of walking and cycling and best practices in cycling winter maintenance processes as well as in cost-benefit analyses of cycling schemes. Material was collected from several European countries and cities. Case cities in the project were Linkoping, Lund and Umea (Sweden); Copenhagen (Denmark); Nijmegen, Delft, Utrecht and ‘s-Hertogenbosch (the Netherlands); Sheffield and Peterborough (Great Britain) and Oulu (Finland). In addition, expert interviews were held with Gehl Architects (Copenhagen) and Decisio companies (Amsterdam) as well as in TU Delft. The purpose of this book is to serve as stimulus for developing highquality walking and cycling conditions in Finnish cities. The book gathers diverse knowledge for instance on how improving pedestrian conditions affects businesses and how geographical data may be utilized in the designing of a cycling network. In addition, it provides concrete guidance for designing spaces for pedestrians and to improve cycling conditions year-round. One picture is worth a thousand words, and thus the results are presented with the help of multitude of figures. This book is continuation to Best European practices in promoting cycling and walking, which was published in 2011 by Transport Research Centre Verne

Energy efficiency in local public transport

As an EU member state, Finland has committed to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and increase the energy efficiency on every sector of the society. In order to achieve these targets in public transport sector, the Finnish ministries and unions have made an energy efficiency agreement for 2008-2016. The aim of the agreement is to achieve 9 % saving in energy use and 80 % coverage by the end of the agreement period. A new tool called ETS-database has been developed for monitoring the success of the agreement. The signees have also committed to support related research and development projects. The monitoring, reporting and development of energy efficiency in public transportation (JOLEN) research project studied the energy efficiency of bus transport in the view of statistics, literature, interviews of transport buyers and survey of bus operators. The aims of the research were to enhance the current knowledge of energy use and energy efficiency in bus transport, to identify and evaluate energy efficiency measures and to present recommendations for improving the energy efficiency and enhancing the leading role of the public sector. The interviews of public transport buyers indicated that very little attention is paid to energy efficiency currently. Buyers also feel that they lack knowledge for improving the energy efficiency and resources for acquiring this knowledge. The buyers also do not know the energy use of the purchased transport. The importance of energy efficiency is seen to be growing and related criteria will be used in tendering and regular reporting will be required from operators. In the view of the operator survey, energy efficiency has not been taken into account in tendering and the operators do not report their energy efficiency to stakeholders. Companies have tried quite widely cheap and simple energy efficiency measures, such as limiting the driving speed, avoiding idling and inspecting the tire pressures regularly. Also ecodriving training is a part of energy efficiency measures in many companies. On the other hand, measures which require large investments, such as light weight or hybrid buses, are not used in companies. Acquiring grant scheme could be started in Finland to promote these measures. The energy efficiency agreement was not familiar or joining it was not of any interest to over a half of the survey respondents. Some possible features of the ETS-database, such as best practice reports and evaluation of the impacts of energy efficiency measures in the fleet, were considered useful by many operators so there is some potential to increase the attraction of ETS-database. Furthermore, the buyers can promote energy efficiency agreement by demanding operators to join it in order to participate in tendering, although this was not seen as a very useful criterion by operators. The buyers should, however, demand regular reports of energy efficiency, because an operator which monitors its energy use well is very often also energy efficient

Toimintamalleja kaupunkilogistiikan kehittämiseen

The lack of non-renewable energy sources and environmental requirements has forced stakeholders to develop their operations into more environmentally friendly direction. Longhaul transportation cover the majority of the kilometres travelled during the trip, but most of the costs and harmful environmental effects compound of distribution and pickups. By investing in urban freight logistics solutions, it is possible to reduce the environmental effects and costs of transport and therefore improve efficiency. The scope for this study is to define the operations to develop urban logistics and examine which of these operations would be suitable for the city of Tampere. The operations that are used in Europe to develop urban logistics are examined through literature review. The future of these methods and their suitability in Tampere are analyzed by expert interviews and case-cities in Europe. The most critical methods in developing urban freight logistics are related not only to environmentally friendly and cost-effective equipment but also more effective use of equipment in route and loud factor planning. There are different ways to start to develop the organization’s operations. For example giving subsidies or forcing with laws are ways to direct the operations of the organization. Intensification can also be company driven when the goal might be in getting more profitable operations or improving the image of the company. In the near future in Tampere the most recommended actions to improve urban freight logistics are those which require only little resources, for example developing the parking and unloading areas, maintaining existing infrastructure and defining the routes for trucks. Over the long haul possible targets for development are low emission zones in the centre-area, where only environmentally friendly vehicles are allowed and consolidation centre, if further studies confirm the benefits of it to overcome the resources required. Other targets for development both in the short and long run are generating common long haul vision for decision makers and companies for the future of the urban freight logistics, sharing real time information with different stakeholders and developing information systems that help to optimize and plan urban logistics

Vitality from Walking and Cycling

Vitality from walking and cycling presents results from PYKALA II –project which was carried out in 2009-2013 in Transport Research Centre Verne of Tampere University of Technology. The aim of the project was to produce new knowledge in order to tap into the potential for walking and cycling even better. The four components of the project were increasing the share of cycling in urban traffic, pedestrian areas as part of city life, developing the monitoring of walking and cycling and best practices in cycling winter maintenance processes as well as in cost-benefit analyses of cycling schemes. Material was collected from several European countries and cities. Case cities in the project were Linkoping, Lund and Umea (Sweden); Copenhagen (Denmark); Nijmegen, Delft, Utrecht and ‘s-Hertogenbosch (the Netherlands); Sheffield and Peterborough (Great Britain) and Oulu (Finland). In addition, expert interviews were held with Gehl Architects (Copenhagen) and Decisio companies (Amsterdam) as well as in TU Delft. The purpose of this book is to serve as stimulus for developing highquality walking and cycling conditions in Finnish cities. The book gathers diverse knowledge for instance on how improving pedestrian conditions affects businesses and how geographical data may be utilized in the designing of a cycling network. In addition, it provides concrete guidance for designing spaces for pedestrians and to improve cycling conditions year-round. One picture is worth a thousand words, and thus the results are presented with the help of multitude of figures. This book is continuation to Best European practices in promoting cycling and walking, which was published in 2011 by Transport Research Centre Verne.publishedVersio

Vitality from Walking and Cycling

Vitality from walking and cycling presents results from PYKALA II –project which was carried out in 2009-2013 in Transport Research Centre Verne of Tampere University of Technology. The aim of the project was to produce new knowledge in order to tap into the potential for walking and cycling even better. The four components of the project were increasing the share of cycling in urban traffic, pedestrian areas as part of city life, developing the monitoring of walking and cycling and best practices in cycling winter maintenance processes as well as in cost-benefit analyses of cycling schemes. Material was collected from several European countries and cities. Case cities in the project were Linkoping, Lund and Umea (Sweden); Copenhagen (Denmark); Nijmegen, Delft, Utrecht and ‘s-Hertogenbosch (the Netherlands); Sheffield and Peterborough (Great Britain) and Oulu (Finland). In addition, expert interviews were held with Gehl Architects (Copenhagen) and Decisio companies (Amsterdam) as well as in TU Delft. The purpose of this book is to serve as stimulus for developing highquality walking and cycling conditions in Finnish cities. The book gathers diverse knowledge for instance on how improving pedestrian conditions affects businesses and how geographical data may be utilized in the designing of a cycling network. In addition, it provides concrete guidance for designing spaces for pedestrians and to improve cycling conditions year-round. One picture is worth a thousand words, and thus the results are presented with the help of multitude of figures. This book is continuation to Best European practices in promoting cycling and walking, which was published in 2011 by Transport Research Centre Verne

Socio-Ecological Natural Experiment with Randomized Controlled Trial to Promote Active Commuting to Work: Process Evaluation, Behavioral Impacts, and Changes in the Use and Quality of Walking and Cycling Paths

Active commuting to work (ACW) has beneficial effects on health, traffic, and climate. However, more robust evidence is needed on how to promote ACW. This paper reports the findings of a multilevel natural experiment with a randomized controlled trial in 16 Finnish workplaces. In Phase 1, 11 workplaces (1823 employees) from Area 1 were exposed to environmental improvements in walking and cycling paths. In Phase 2, five more workplaces (826 employees) were recruited from Area 2 and all workplaces were randomized into experimental group (EXP) promoting ACW with social and behavioral strategies and comparison group (COM) participating only in data collection. Process and impact evaluation with questionnaires, travel diaries, accelerometers, traffic calculations, and auditing were conducted. Statistics included Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test, Mann-Whitney U-test, and after-before differences with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). After Phase 1, positive change was seen in the self-reported number of days, which the employees intended to cycle part of their journey to work in the following week (p = 0.001). After Phase 2, intervention effect was observed in the proportion of employees, who reported willingness to increase walking (8.7%; 95% CI 1.8 to 15.6) and cycling (5.5%; 2.2 to 8.8) and opportunity to cycle part of their journey to work (5.9%; 2.1 to 9.7). To conclude, the intervention facilitated employees’ motivation for ACW, which is the first step towards behavior change

Socio-Ecological Intervention to Promote Active Commuting to Work: Protocol and Baseline Findings of a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial in Finland

Active commuting to work (ACW) is beneficial to traffic, environment and population health. More evidence is needed on effective ways to promote ACW. This paper describes the protocol and baseline findings of a cluster-randomized controlled study, which aims to promote ACW with multilevel strategies in two large workplace areas in Tampere, Finland. In Phase 1, the impacts of environmental strategies (trail improvements) were evaluated in 11 workplaces within Area 1. In Phase 2, five more workplaces were recruited from Area 2 to evaluate the impacts of social and behavioral strategies customized for each workplace. For this purpose, the workplaces in both areas were randomly assigned into experimental group (EXP, n = 6 + 2), which promoted ACW with social and behavioral strategies or into comparison group (COM, n = 5 + 3), which participated in the data collection only. The primary indicator in both phases is the change in employees’ ACW. Secondary indicators are e.g., changes in employees’ self-rated health, wellbeing at work, restrictions to and motivation for ACW, adverse effects due to ACW and the use and quality of the main walking and cycling trails. Also process, efficiency and environmental evaluation is included. The study is the first one in Finland to combine interdisciplinary collaboration between practitioners and researchers working in the fields of transportation, urban design, physical activity and sustainable development to promote ACW. The findings benefit all stakeholders interested in promoting ACW in urban context