ABSTRACT
An easy way of reducing urban traffic emissions is to convince people to walk or use bicycles instead of cars for short distances. Cycling is a low cost alternative means of transport that has provided fast and reliable journeys for Europeans until the 1960s, and it continues to be an important mode of transport today especially in Denmark, the Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium). Cycling can potentially provide a significant proportion of urban trips in the near future (Beckx et al. 2013; Scheepers et al. 2013). It also offers a solution to many other undesirable attributes of motorized vehicles (for example, social injustice, noise, most forms of air pollution, congestion and energy resource depletion). In addition, cycling can enhance long-term physical and mental health in the general population, and reduces many of the same health endpoints that are increased by vehicle-related air pollution (for example, cardiovascular diseases, strokes, respiratory effects and mortality). Commuter cycling appears to be a convenient way to integrate the level of physical activity necessary to achieve those health benefits into the daily schedule (de Nazelle and Nieuwenhuijsen 2010).
