Cycling in Low-Density Areas and Outskirts: Enablers and Barriers to Achieve an Equitable 15-Minute City

Providing cycling infrastructure in cities is a well-recognised strategy to encourage bicycle uptake and reduce car dependency. Implementing bicycle master plans in municipalities has been acknowledged as fundamental to increasing active travel. Nevertheless, few studies have explored the extent to which this strategy can be equitable, considering the distribution of network and bicycle accessibility gains across distinct socio-economic groups within a metropolitan scale. Hence, this chapter examines the cycling strategy under implementation in the metropolitan region of Lyon, France, adopting the 15-minute city framework to measure bicycle accessibility levels to essential activities. Spatial analysis was conducted using the TIRE tool, which was conceived to measure the equity impacts of bicycle master plans. Then, a bivariate local Moran's analysis was performed to explore the mismatches between population density, income and bicycle accessibility levels. Results suggest that high-density zones, specifically located in the core of the metropolitan region, have disproportionately more bicycle-accessible activities than low-density zones in the peripheral municipalities. Moreover, the TIRE tool revealed a higher concentration of socioeconomically privileged groups outside the inner city, implying low-density zones with single-family units and a higher dependency on motorised modes. Overall, the distribution of the plan has positive equity implications as disadvantaged groups located in the inner city have higher access to opportunities. Henceforth, this study further discusses equity-oriented measures to improve the cycling conditions in zones with lower accessibility levels and higher concentration of disadvantaged groups, as well as in low-density neighbourhoods on the outskirts.