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This research looks at bicycle transportation, particularly bicycle commuting, in three North American cities with extensive bicycling activity and programs: Madison, Wisconsin; Boulder, Colorado; and Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The study describes bicycle transportation in these cities to gain ideas for further improvements in Minnesota bicycle transportation. Madison, Boulder, and Toronto share a reputation for high levels of bicycling activity. Each city plans for additions to its extensive system of bike paths and bike lanes. Wisconsin's state plan calls for an interconnected transportation system across government boundaries and jurisdictions and completed a Wisconsin Bicycle Transportation Plan in 1998. Boulder completed a Bicycle System Plan in 1996 as part of its Transportation Master Plan Update for the Boulder Valley. It, too, addresses the need to develop a continuous and well-connected provincial government of Ontario recently amalgamated the six municipal governments in the Toronto metro area to form The New City of Toronto, and the new city is now working on a new bicycle plan. A City Cycling Committee, a committee of the city council, looks at programs to increase the quantity and quality of bicycle trips in Toronto. The three cities also have developed public initiatives to promote bicycling, including bike-to-work events, free bike programs, and awards programs. All three cities publish extensive information about bicycling programs and issues on the Internet. Internet sites include official city sites, sites managed by independent organizations and individual bike activists, and electronic newsletters.

Between 1970 and 1990 the share of Minnesota commuters working outside their county of residence increased from 18 to 29 percent. This study analyzes this trend by examining commuter flows among labor markets in a 120-county study area encompassing Minnesota and counties in adjacent states. A series of maps and statistical models relate commuter flows to changes in demographic and employment conditions over the past two decades. Commuter flows have strengthened since 1970, becoming more important in declining rural counties as well as growing suburban and exurban labor markets. Longer work journeys in declining rural areas appear to reflect individual coping strategies, as workers search farther afield for opportunities in a regional labor market undergoing a geographic transformation. For most types of jobs, employment growth is dispersing outward from metropolitan cores, while in non-metro areas jobs are consolidated into widely-spaced regional centers. These trends have created a network of diffuse labor markets in which commuter flows link widely-scattered communities of labor deficits to areas with labor surplus, in patterns too complex to be modeled solely in terms of aggregate population and housing variables.

Workers making long daily commutes in the 1950s were understood as those best able to afford amenities normally available outside the "urban core"-that is, the downtown central business district (CBD) plus adjacent transportation-industrial zones and high density residential neighborhoods within "central cities" such as Minneapolis and St. Paul. This report examines characteristics of Minnesota workers residing in Minnesota's metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas who made long duration (more than 30 minutes one way) commutes in 1990, concluding that early metropolitan-based models today lack much if not all of their former applicability. Minnesota's average commute of 19.1 minutes fell below the national average of 19.7, but more than 450,000 Minnesota workers spent more than 30 minutes commuting each way. Long duration work journeys were not restricted to the stereotypical upper income suburban family. In all geographic categories, the largest group of long duration commuters came from two person households, whose commuting may reflect compromises between two job locations. In a five county "exurban" (i.e., beyond continuously built-up suburban areas) study area between Minneapolis and St. Cloud, average auto commuting time was the state's highest, at nearly 26 minutes. Blue collar workers reported commuting times longer than professionals. Findings have implications for policy proposals such as highway improvements, toll roads, or new energy taxes.

Census measures are used to classify Minnesota counties and metropolitan area census tracts according to demographic, journey-to-work, and mobility characteristics in 1990. Counties differ regarding scores calculated with respect to Population Mass-reflecting measures such as numbers of persons, of commuters, and of vehicles available for personal use; and a general Commuting tendency-reflecting proportions of commuters traveling more than 30 minutes, average commute time, and average number of vehicles per household. Three other basic characteristics of counties-average Socioeconomic Status of residents, degree of Mobility Impairment of residents; and Solo Commuting tendency-provide scores further differentiating counties. County scores are used to group Minnesota's 87 counties into six diverse clusters: 1) Hennepin (Minneapolis); 2) Ramsey (St. Paul); 3) Anoka and Dakota (Twin Cities suburbs); 4) St. Louis (Duluth); Olmsted (Rochester), Stears (St. Cloud), Washington (Twin Cities); and 6) all others. The second analysis examines 833 census tracts in the Minnesota's five MSAs, classifying them with the procedures used for counties. Resulting classifications illustrate that relationships between travel activity and socioeconomic characteristics vary considerably for different metropolitan contexts. As a demonstration of potentially useful methods applied to census data for Minnesota, the study provided results. On other grounds, its value is more limited.

This study demonstrates applicability of two distinct data sources for travel behavior research. Questions relating to reverse-commuting are raised with respect to all working residents, and working residents in low-income households located in Minneapolis. Census of Population and Housing, 1990 Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) and the Twin Cities Metropolitan Council Travel Behavior Inventory (TBI) provide details on aspects of commute and travel patterns. Examining organization and methods of analysis appropriate to determining particular travelrelated information presents a unique perspective on the advantages and shortcomings of each data set. PUMS data provide detailed household and work-journey information. To answer reverse-commuting questions posed in this study, we consider household income, worker occupation, state and Public Use Microdata Area of employment, number of persons in each household, means of transportation used for the journey to work, and work journey duration. TBI data contain a wealth of information on both the work journey and other trips, but lack the depth of socioeconomic data available in the PUMS file. The value of TBI data in responding to this series of questions lies in the details about trip location and purpose.

The continued decentralization of metropolitan areas has replaced the well-defined daily urban systems of the 1960's with complex, overlapping commuting fields. This report analyzes county-to-county commuting flows in Minnesota and counties in adjacent states to evaluate changes in the state's urban systems between 1960 and 1990. Findings confirm that inter-county commuting has increased dramatically, from 7% in 1960 to nearly 19% in 1990. The rate of growth is diminishing, but the total number of commuters is considerable. In 1990, over 70,000 workers commuted to the seven-county Twin Cities Metropolitan Area (TCMA) from Greater Minnesota. Results of a multivariate statistical procedure, factor analysis, confirm that exurban counties between the Twin Cities and nearby regional centers have been drawn into a complex web of interconnected, overlapping urban systems. These findings support the hypothesis that the daily work journey is creating an interdependent network of urban systems in the densely settled portions of the state. The increasing gap between the seven-county TCMA and the practical extent of the Twin Cities underscores the question whether the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Council should expand to include counties connected by the daily flow of workers to the Twin Cities.

Commute durations in Minnesota increased by about two and a half minutes on average during the 1990s. Given earlier evidence suggesting that commute times remain fairly stable over time, this was a surprisingly large increase. The research described in this report was undertaken to try to identify reasons for this increase, and, specifically, for why it happened when and where it did. Growth in commute durations does not appear to have been significantly driven by land use or economic factors. Commutes grew slower in the Twin Cities and other urban counties than in the rest of the state, despite congestion and land use changes in these areas. And overall there was little correlation between economic factors and the rate commute growth, especially outside the Twin Cities area. Some of the increase seems to be due to a change in methodology in the 2000 census. Adjusting for this, the overall commute time increase in the 1990s (11%) was slightly larger than in the 1980s (7%) because in the 1980s travel speeds statewide increased slightly, offsetting longer distances to some degree. Because speeds statewide remained constant in the 1990s, all the increase in distance was reflected in longer travel times.

This research expands on a 2005 study that examined how the addition of bicycling facilities in the 1990s influenced commuting rates in the Twin Cities. The researchers applied the same methodology used in the 2005 study to six other cities that had also added bicycling facilities in the 1990s to see if the results would be similar to those of the earlier study and conclude that the "build it and they will come theory" is not universally applicable.

Cyclists confronted by disruptions to facilities (e.g., dedicated paths, designated lanes) experience disturbances that prompt them to select sub-optimal facilities to avoid disruptions. Cyclists who have ready access to such improved facilities often choose sub-optimal facilities. This project collected a variety of data to help gain a better understanding of commuter cyclist behavior using Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment to record cyclist movements and behaviors. Using GPS units for data collection provides significant data for analysis, however, a substantial and unexpected amount of effort went into determining the best operational use of the GPS units and verifying data collection protocols. Among important findings, results show that as perceived safety decreases, riders appear to be more cautious and move more slowly; however in situations of substantial perceived danger, riders go faster to spend as short a time in unsafe conditions. Cyclists choose these dangerous situations over alternatives because of lessened travel times. The research has been successful in establishing insightful relationships between commuter cyclist behavior and facilities. The methodological results are significant for future work.

Since the 1990s, interest in multimodal travel has increased significantly. In 1991, Congress passed the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, and in 1994, the Federal Highway Administration made doubling the percentage of trips made by foot or bicycle a federal goal.