Synergies from improved cycling-transit integration: Towards an integrated urban mobility system

Improved integration of cycling and transit has the potential to overcome the fundamental limitations of each mode by combining their opposite strengths of flexibility and action radius. The benefits of such integration potentially extend beyond user benefits and the trip level. We present seven conceptual mechanisms that lead to synergies, understood as benefits not attributable to cycling or transit in isolation, but to their integration only. As an illustration, we analyse and allocate such synergies by a case study of the Dutch cycling-transit system. Where the practical absence of cycling has limited such potential in many locations elsewhere, the recent resurgence in cycling practice and culture, especially in urban agglomerations, enables new opportunities for improved cycling-transit integration. Urban agglomerations are also the locations where land-use and mobility related issues seem particularly pressing and where we claim cycling-transit synergies are strongest. The article concludes with a discussion of implication and application.