Paper Details

TRB 91st Annual Meeting (January 22-26, 2012)

Event Number:	539
Event Title:	Bicycle Planning and the Built Environment
Event Date:	Jan 24 2012 10:45AM- 12:30PM
Event Location:	Hilton, International Center
Event Description:
Event Agenda:

Airports and Bicycles: What Are the Obstacles and Incentives for Operators to Improve Bicycle Access? (12-1208)

In this paper we use a case study approach to examine how airport operators are addressing bicycle access to their properties, including motivations and obstacles, given new policies to increase bicycle transportation’s role in the transportation system and new approaches to integrating bicycles, as well as transit and walking, into system planning, design and construction. Using interviews with key informants and review of policy documents and research literature, we report on seven cases: Portland International Airport, Oakland International Airport, San Francisco International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Boston Logan International Airport and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. To the extent airport operators have invested in bicycle access, their focus has been on employees. For that reason, we limit our discussion to employee bicycle access. The information gathered in the interviews provides a first, early look at some of the fundamental aspects of accommodations for bicyclists at airports, as well as factors that could encourage and discourage investments. Encouraging factors include: completion of direct transit links, regulatory mandates to reduce airports’ environmental impacts and land use constraints resulting from anticipated growth. Some operators have taken advantage of pavement projects to do unprecedented inclusion of bicycle lanes. We found institutional and physical barriers (inaccessible locations and dangerous access roads). Our work identifies potential areas for additional research in airport employee commute needs, travel demand and mode choice and costs and benefits to operators who invest in bicycle access.

Authors
     Orrick, Phyllis , University of California, Berkeley
     Frick, Karen Trapenberg, University of California, Berkeley