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.