Grant: Operating Grant: Population Health Intervention Research

A good way to increase the number of people who walk and cycle for transportation is public bicycle share programs (PBSP). PBSPs make bicycles available at stations in a city and anyone can use them for a small cost. People who walk and cycle for transportation get more physical activity and are less overweight than people who don't. . Walking and cycling for transportation can be dangerous because roads are shared with cars and when a walker or biker is hit by a car they normally get very injured. This proposal builds on our past research and studies whether or not starting a public bicycle share program in a city increases cycling and collisions between cyclists and cars. People living in different cities with and without public bike share programs will be compared. We will do three Iinternet surveys in 5 cities where there are or will be bicycle share programs. These cities are Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Boston, and New York City. We will compare changes in cycling and collisions in these cities to similar cities without bicycle share programs. These similar cities are Detroit, Philadelphia, and Chicago. We will do surveys in the spring of 2012, the fall of 2012, and the fall of 2013. We will ask questions about health, knowledge and use of public bicycle share programs, cycling, experiences of collisions with cars, and information about age, sex and income. In our analysis we will compare cycling and collisions between cities. We will conduct activities to share the results of studies with the cities that helped with the study and with anyone who is interested.