Building good bike facilities can have a positive impact on housing development, a London study has found.
The greatest impact is realised at a neighbourhood level: creating pleasant, attractive streets that encourage walking and cycling will improve local connectivity and liveability to an extent that additional new development may be unlocked.
As major Australian cities grapple with the issue of population growth and affordable housing, the role of transport in shaping housing provision has been forgotten.
Car-based suburban sprawl has provided cheap houses, but has made transport expensive and difficult.
The new study, from Transport for London, says that planning new developments around active, efficient and sustainable modes of transport can help create attractive, accessible areas where people are able to lead healthy lives and get around without having to depend on a car.
And extending new transport connections to new parts of the city can unlock new development by improving access and transport capacity for new and existing residents.
In London the existence of bike routes has started to be a feature of articles in the property pages, indicating that quality bike routes can influence where people desire to live.
Similar linkages have been previously established between the property market and public transport access.
The study found that good bike routes could further cement this connection by improving access by residents to public transport.
"The research shows that the provision of high- quality cycling infrastructure can play a small, but significant, role in shaping London’s housing market,” the report says.
"It also underlines the importance of delivering a London-wide cycle network, not only to help people travel around the city sustainably, but to ensure that new developments and wider growth areas are well connected to the rest of the city.
"The report highlights a consensus that expanding the cycle network to neighbourhoods across London does not cause social exclusion or gentrification."
See the Transport for London report here.
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