Bikeability and the 20-min Neighborhood

This study explored a methodology for assessing a neighborhood's bicycle accessibility or “bikeability” on the basis of its mix of infrastructure and destinations, essentially the 20-min neighborhood for bicycles. Prior approaches to assessing bikeability were examined. A new method to measure bikeability that incorporates extensive bicycle infrastructure and land use destination location data is described. The assessment method compared neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon, that had significant differences in bicycle usage. On the basis of the new method, the findings confirmed that, taking into account route infrastructure and destination accessibility, East Portland locations were considerably less bikeable than Inner Portland locations. The assessment method was then rerun to incorporate potential investment and development scenarios to understand how they might affect neighborhood bikeability. The methodology provided steps toward making an objective bikeability assessment—asking if a place could be considered a 20-min neighborhood by bike—and pushed the effort to integrate transportation infrastructure and land-use factors. In its application, the process could be used to explore where planned (or hypothetical) infrastructure or development could be most helpful and which neighborhoods might not receive much added value from the planned improvements.