Brick red

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Trends in car traffic

Over a long period of time car traffic in Sweden have just increased. Few years like the oil crises 1974 and 1981 or in the crisis in the 1990s there have been single years of negative growth of car traffic.


However in both 2009 and 2010 private car traffic have been lower than the previous year. This is the first time ever with negative growth two years in a row! In Malmö and Lund the figures follow the national development closely only that changes seem to be smaller in Lund and larger in Malmö compared to national trends. For 2011 however car traffic seem to be growing again. For the first 9 months there seems to be a growth of car traffic of 1.3% at national level.

(*2001 based on monthly flow values)

The decreases in average car kilometers per person does not really mean less motorized traffic in Malmö and Lund as any of these decreases is more that well overrun by increases in population and workplaces. Also commercial traffic is excluded. There will be more on car traffic on MLCC in the future as there is an article on traffic and peak oil to come that have quite a different angle than you might be used to.

Sources:
www.trafa.se/Statistik/Vagtrafik/Korstrackor/Korstrackor-baserade-pa-flodesmatningar/
www.trafikverket.se/Om-Trafikverket/Trafikverket/Manatlig-trafikrapport/Trafikvolym-vag/Statistikarkiv-Trafikvolym-vag/
www.scb.se/Pages/Standard____313065.aspx

Lund Central City

Nice red bike

Where the kids lose their bike

Almost all kids in Sweden own their own bike. Somewhere in their teens however something happens. Bike ownership falls remarkably in the ages 16-19. Figures are in % and simular for boys and girls.

How come one cant help wonder.
Statistics from SCB (http://www.scb.se/Pages/TableAndChart____282476.aspx)

Kent Ek; is he the guy that can increase the level of biking in Sweden?

Kent Ek is assigned by the National Goverment to investigate how to increase biking in Sweden. However he will soon be transferred to a post in the EU parliament. He is not even sure if that will work out himself.

In this article in DN he talks a bit about how what he thinks is most important to get more people in the saddle. He especially points out increased safety as the most important improvement. In my mind there are three important areas to work on.

- Increased accessibility, it must be easy and fast to reach your destination.

- Safety, When it comes to getting more people to bike it is not the actual safety but the experienced safety that is important.

- Image of biking. It is cool to go by bike!

Anyway there was a national bicycle plan in the year 2000. It pointed out a ten year strategy on how to increase biking in Sweden by 2010. As almost nothing in the plan was implemented the result was that biking decreased instead. Investigations and planns are just not enough.

Nice autumn light

Making up statistics

They say there is no worse lay than statistics. In today's DN there is a good example.

Trafic reasercher Irene Isaksson-Hellman from insurance company IF says that the number
of killed and seriously injured bikers has increased recently. This is simply not true. Looking at official statistics it is clear that the number of killed bikers have not increased. from 2009 to 2010 there was a decrease of 33% in the number of bikers killed. For the first 8 months of 2011 the same historically low level remains. The number of bikers seriously injured is more steady but also declining. from 2009 to 2010 there is a decrease of injured by 11% and for the first 8 months of 2011 there is a very tiny increase (3%).

What is Ifs interest of trying to fool people into believing biking is dangerous? Well less bikes means more cars. More cars means more traffic insurances for IF.

Parking a bike

Cargo bike ride