Cycling within urban areas: the cases of England and Japan

This paper compares the use of the bicycle in two countries with significantly different cycling characteristics, England and Japan. In most English cities, cycling is not an integral part of the transportation system, despite considerable efforts from government. Conversely, cycling is a widely accepted transportation mode throughout Japan, even though Japanese cities do not present extensive cycling networks. Traditionally, Japanese urban plans are limited to two main actions with regards to cycling; either implementing bicycle parking facilities around railway/subway stations, or establishing bicycle zones within road intersections. Accordingly, the main objective of this paper is to address the characteristics of each country’s cycling system, with a focus on further understanding the behaviour of active cyclists. The cities of Portsmouth in England and Sapporo in Japan are the case studies for the behavioural analysis and the statistical analysis. In the behavioural analysis, residents’ views on cycling in Portsmouth and Sapporo are discussed, whilst levels of cycling, cycling infrastructure, travel behaviours and the impacts of lifestyle on cycling are described. In the statistical analysis, mode choice models are estimated to investigate factors with strong influence on cycling.