Can providing safe cycling infrastructure encourage people to cycle more when it rains? The use of crowdsourced cycling data (Strava)

Many local authorities in the UK and other developed countries have spent a substantial amount of time and money providing safe cycling infrastructure to improve cycling environments. However, it is not clear whether these expensive physical investments are an effective strategy to encourage people to cycle more in cities where there is a high level of precipitation. The evidence is limited, partly due to data limitations. We used crowdsourced cycling data (taken from the Strava activity-tracking app) and fixed-effects panel regression models to investigate whether providing safe cycling infrastructure could be an effective way to overcome adverse weather conditions. We selected the city centre of Glasgow, Scotland because of the current size and scope of investments. We found that providing safe cycle paths could encourage people to cycle more, especially on dry days. However, findings suggested that rainy cities like Glasgow may not have realised the full benefits of safe cycling infrastructure because there are larger reductions in the volume of cycling on rainy days on these routes. Planners, especially from cities with a high level of precipitation, should consider how to improve cycle paths to overcome adverse weather and other policies (e.g., providing shower facilities at workplaces, incentives to cycle, etc.) to increase cyclists’ resilience to bad weather.