The Toronto Cycling Think & Do Tank was initially supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Partnership Development Grant. The grant was a major two year Partnership Development Grant to support the development of a research partnership group devoted to increasing commuter cycling participation.
The original grant application was titled "Cycling for All: An urban cycling Think & Do Tank".
Purpose: To build a diverse interdisciplinary and multi-sector research consortium and develop a unique methodology to study, apply, and evaluate three critical elements essential to the promotion of urban cycling as a primary transportation choice: sustainable cycling economies; social infrastructure and; knowledge mobilization.
Rationale: The transportation sector accounts for 30 percent of emissions in OECD countries, a reality that has cemented a growing consensus that modal shift from automobiles to human-powered transportation, combined with public transit for longer trips, will address the problem of emissions, and could reverse negative impacts and the financial costs associated with urban congestion, environmental damage, poor health, and commuting times. Despite this consensus, research into encouraging mode shift has largely focused on the physical infrastructure elements of transitways, bike lanes, and street design. In the auto-centric context of Canadian cities, the political and financial barriers to these options have resulted in slow progress on the implementation of sustainable transportation retrofits. The goal of this research is to investigate alternative methods to rapidly increase the number of people cycling as a primary mode of transportation. To do this, the consortium will first investigate the diverse barriers that exist to adopting cycling behaviour, and will then design and pilot test ways to overcome these behaviours through the application of tools that reduced energy use by building occupants. With this approach, the project fills a gap in the existing literature on sustainable transportation by applying the insight from the field of behaviour change for resource conservation and health promotion to the promotion of urban cycling to diverse communities.
The original grant application was titled "Cycling for All: An urban cycling Think & Do Tank".
Purpose: To build a diverse interdisciplinary and multi-sector research consortium and develop a unique methodology to study, apply, and evaluate three critical elements essential to the promotion of urban cycling as a primary transportation choice: sustainable cycling economies; social infrastructure and; knowledge mobilization.
Rationale: The transportation sector accounts for 30 percent of emissions in OECD countries, a reality that has cemented a growing consensus that modal shift from automobiles to human-powered transportation, combined with public transit for longer trips, will address the problem of emissions, and could reverse negative impacts and the financial costs associated with urban congestion, environmental damage, poor health, and commuting times. Despite this consensus, research into encouraging mode shift has largely focused on the physical infrastructure elements of transitways, bike lanes, and street design. In the auto-centric context of Canadian cities, the political and financial barriers to these options have resulted in slow progress on the implementation of sustainable transportation retrofits. The goal of this research is to investigate alternative methods to rapidly increase the number of people cycling as a primary mode of transportation. To do this, the consortium will first investigate the diverse barriers that exist to adopting cycling behaviour, and will then design and pilot test ways to overcome these behaviours through the application of tools that reduced energy use by building occupants. With this approach, the project fills a gap in the existing literature on sustainable transportation by applying the insight from the field of behaviour change for resource conservation and health promotion to the promotion of urban cycling to diverse communities.
