Aslak Fyhri

Transportøkonomisk institutt, TØI · Safety and the Environment

Electric scooters (e-scooters) have become a popular phenomenon internationally; however, their use has raised concerns about pedestrian safety. This study describes the possible effects of the emergence of e-scooters on pedestrians. We focus on the interaction, conflicts, crashes, and attitudes between pedestrians and e-scooter riders and pedestri...

This study evaluates the effect of an influencer campaign on e-scooter risk behavior among adolescent e-scooter users in Norway. The analysis shows no statistical differences in self-reported risk behaviors (dual riding, riding under the influence and mobile phone use) among respondents who had seen one of the campaign films, compared to respondent...

To ensure cities’ livability, a significant modal shift from car use towards more sustainable modes of transportation, such as walking and cycling, is required. To establish such a modal shift, a better understanding is needed of the psychological components that affect people’s likelihood of shifting to active transport modes. To this end, a behav...

There is great political motivation to improve conditions for cyclists to help solving the transport needs of the future. We used eye-tracking to collect data and analysed it using a novel machine learning approach. 40 cyclists in total were tasked with navigating a set route through the Oslo city centre. One group before the new infrastructure was...

Introduction Previous studies show substantial mode share effects from e-bikes. E-bike owners cycle more and drive less car than they would without access to an e-bike. Support schemes for e-bikes exist in a number of countries, but knowledge about the effect of subsidies on active transport is limited. The aim of this study is to assess the mode c...

The current paper presents the results of behavioural observations in a field experiment with automated shuttles in Oslo, Norway. Video observations were conducted at five fixed locations along a challenging 1.2 km automated shuttle line with varying traffic conditions. Observed interactions between vulnerable road users and automated shuttles were...

Knowledge about how weather conditions affect travel behavior in different user groups and contexts is relevant for planners and policymakers to facilitate sustainable transportation systems. We aimed to assess the influence of day-to-day weather on cycling for transportation among parents of young children with access to different bike types (e-bi...

Smart phone apps hold great promise for travel behaviour research, but their performance relative to traditional methods is still not well understood. The aim of this study is to evaluate the magnitude and direction of differences between travel behaviour from a completely automatic travel mode detection mobile app and a traditional travel behaviou...

Motivating active transport is a health and environmental policy priority, and plays an important role in achieving the necessary shift toward a sustainable transport system. Financial incentives to promote cycling are used in many countries, but very few studies document causal effects. Using a randomized controlled trial in the field, we provide...

Many countries colour their cycle lanes, but there is still a lack of research into the impact of this policy. Rather than constraining or regulating movement, coloured asphalt conveys information, and can serve as a good example of a “nudge”. In transport, there are few good examples of effective nudges for improved safety or sustainability. We us...

Access to safe, green urban environments is important for quality of life in cities. The objective of this study is to explore the impact of a safety-enhancing landscape design measure on visitors’ experiences in an urban park. Additionally, this paper combines the use of field and virtual reality (VR) experiments, contributing methodological insig...

In the last few years, there has been a strong increase in the interest in and usage of so-called “Personal e-Transporters” (PeTs), also referred to as micro-mobility devices. Empirical research on the usage of PeTs as a transport mode is virtually non-existent, especially within Europe. This paper aims to fill this gap by investigating people’s mo...

E-bikes or pedelecs are bikes with functional pedals, assisted with an electric motor. Given that the e-bike can help people overcome known barriers to cycling, they might be positive for public health. E-bike users get less exercise than conventional cyclists, everything else equal. Still, people with e-bikes increase their total amount of cycling...

Cities and road authorities in many countries have started colouring their cycle lanes. Some road authorities choose red, some blue, and some green. The reasoning behind this choice is not clear, and it is uncertain whether some colours are superior to others. The current study aims to examine whether coloured cycle lanes are viewed more positively...

Introduction Cycling for transport could integrate physical activity (PA) into daily routines and potentially increase total PA levels. However, for parents with young children, most factors affecting transport mode choice tend to facilitate car use. Greater insight is necessary into reasons for (not) using sustainable transport modes in parents wi...

Previous research shows that e-bike owners use private cars less than other transport user groups, and also report to have changed from motorised to non-motorised transport. A challenge with many studies is that they are either retrospective or cross-sectional, thus giving little control over confounding factors. We followed up a short term trial w...

It is well established that physical activity (PA) is health enhancing, and that active travel can increase total PA. The e-bike demands lower levels of intensity for the same pace and distance as a conventional bicycle, due to the assistance of the electrical motor. Still, the e-bike provides PA of at least moderate intensity, for both inactive an...

E-bikes are becoming increasingly popular, and are given an important role in the green mobility of the future. However, some have raised concerns that the increased speed and the increased weight of the e-bike can lead to more accidents among cyclists riding an e-bike, as compared to conventional bicycles. Furthermore, it has been suggested that e...

Knowing the speed at which a cyclist travels is important in route and mode choice modelling. Empirical evidence suggests that it varies significantly in accordance with—among other things—infrastructure and topology. Despite this, in many network-based transport models cycling speed is constant, making travel distance the predominant variable of c...

Introduction We aimed to investigate whether providing parents with children in kindergarten with access to different bicycle types could influence (i) travel behavior and cycling amount, and (ii) intrinsic motivation for cycling and psychological constructs related to car use. Methods A randomized, controlled trial was conducted in Southern Norwa...

It has been suggested that the safety benefits of bicycle helmets are limited by risk compensation. The current study contributes to explaining whether the potential safety effects of bicycle helmets are reduced by cyclists’ tendency to cycle faster when wearing them (as a result of risk compensation), and if this potential reduction can be associa...

Background: The present study aims to increase bicycling and level of physical activity (PA), and thereby promote health in parents of toddlers, by giving access to different bicycle types. There is a need for greater understanding of e-bikes and their role in the transportation network, and further effects on PA levels and health. Moreover, longt...

Many people use cars all over the world. This is, however, not done without risk, as traffic accidents are one of the most common causes of death for adolescents worldwide. The number of deaths has steadily decreased, both worldwide and in Norway. Many of these accidents involve passenger cars and distracted driving. While there are many campaigns...

Background Cycling is considered to have a positive effect on public health through increased physical activity. In Norway, the e-bike is seen as a way of getting more people to cycle. However, the motorized assistance of an e-bike potentially eliminates any physical activity associated with its use. It is possible that the assumed health effect of...

Police crash reports are often the main source for official data in many countries. However, police sampling and data are known to be subject to bias, making the countermeasures adopted according to them possibly inefficient. In the case of bicycle crashes, this bias is most acute and it probably varies across countries, with some of them being mor...

In Norway, as in many countries, there is a political goal to increase bicycle use. The electric bicycle (e-bike) is a promising tool for achieving this goal, given the hilliness of the country. However, little is yet known about the deterrents of cycling in Norway in general, and in particular how the purchase of an e-bike could be stimulated. In...

Police crash reports are often the main source for official data in many countries. However, police sampling and data are known to be subject to bias, making the countermeasures adopted according to them possibly inefficient. In the case of bicycle crashes, this bias is most acute and it probably varies across countries, with some of them being mor...

Green urban parks can offer city dwellers a place to withdraw from traffic noise. However, the significance of the sonic environment for suitability for recreational activities and how to measure this in an appropriate manner, has not been given much research attention. The aim of the study was to investigate the relation between calculated estimat...

Relying on accident records as the main data source for studying cyclists’ safety has many drawbacks, such as high degree of under-reporting, the lack of accident details and particularly of information about the interaction processes that led to the accident. It is also an ethical problem as one has to wait for accidents to happen in order to make...

In many European countries, it is a political goal that future growth in local travel should be absorbed by sustainable transport modes. Concerns that increased walking and cycling produce more accidents have been countered by the "safety in numbers" (SiN) argument. According to SiN, the more walkers/cyclists there are in a population, the lower th...

A road sign with the text «Share the road» and a picture of a smiling cyclist and a passing car was evaluated in a before-after study with surveys among cyclists and car drivers. The sign was set up at two sites on a test road near Oslo in summer 2014. A similar road was used as a comparison. About two thirds of the participants on the test road ha...

Many governments attempt to improve cycling safety to reduce the number of bicycle crashes and encourage cycling. The Netherlands is a world leader in bicycle use and safety. This paper explores how the Netherlands achieved an 80% reduction in the number of cyclists killed (predominantly bicycle–motor vehicle crashes) per billion bicycle kilometres...

In many European countries, it is a political goal that future growth in local travel should be absorbed by sustainable transport modes. Concerns that increased walking and cycling pro‐ duce more accidents have been countered by the " safety in numbers " (SiN) argument. Accord‐ ing to SiN, the more walkers/cyclists there are in a population, the lo...

In this study underlying mechanisms of the Safety in Numbers (SIN) effect in cyclists were stud‐ ied. The SIN effect implies that with a higher number of cyclists (as well as pedestrians), their relative injury risks becomes lower. Conflicts between cyclists and cars as well as violations (running through red) were observed in two countries: Norway...

In Norway, it is a political goal that future growth in local travel should be absorbed by sustainable transport modes. Concerns that increased walking and cycling produce more accidents have been countered by the " safety in numbers " (SIN) argument. According to SIN, the more walkers/cyclists there are in a population, the lower their risk. SIN h...

Folkehelseinstituttet har tidligere estimert at om lag 3% av befolkningen opplever alvorlige søvnforstyrrelser på grunn av trafikkstøy i Norge. I følge regjerningens Handlingsplan mot støy bør man få på plass et mål for å redusere nattstøy i Norge. Folkehelseinstituttet fikk derfor i oppdrag av Helse – og omsorgsdepartementet å utrede en indikator...

Undertittel på omslaget: Mennesker og omgivelser

This study investigated risk compensation by cyclists in response to bicycle helmet wearing by observing changes in cycling behavior, reported experience of risk, and a possible objective measure of experienced risk. The suitability of heart rate variability (HRV) as an objective measure of experienced risk was assessed beforehand by recording HRV...

Several adverse effects have been associated with exposure to traffic noise. Studies supporting a noise-stress-health model have suggested links between noise level and increased noradrenalin concentrations in urine, hypertension and myocardial infarction. Among the more commonly documented effects, sleep disturbances have been regarded as being th...

Increased use of the car in the everyday transport of children can lead to environmental problems, and cause increased obesity and decreased independence among children. Using a structural equation model we investigate the influence of a range of background variables on mode choice for Norwegian children’s transport to school or leisure activities....

Worry on nine different means of transport was measured in a Norwegian sample of 853 respondents. The main aim of the study was to investigate differences in worry about accidents and worry about unpleasant incidents, and how these two sorts of worry relate to various means of transport as well as transport behavior. Factor analyses of worry about...

European cultural landscapes have been subject to considerable changes since the middle of the twentieth century, and among the most significant alterations are general re-growth, reforestation, and overgrowth. Such changes might lead to landscape loss for locals and deterioration of vistas for sightseeing holidaymakers. This article responds to a...

Unlike school trips, the leisure activities of children and transport to these activities have received relatively little attention. Organized activities have increased and the immediate neighbourhood is not always the most appropriate or desirable area to play in or carry out various leisure activities. This paper presents findings from a nationwi...

The Institute of Transport Economics is conducting a project on perceived risk on various transport modes within the research program Risk and safety in the transport sector (RISIT), funded by the Research Council of Norway. In order to provide a sound theoretical and scientific basis for generating specific research questions, sub-projects, and su...

The prevalence of overweight among children has become a serious threat to public health, and reduced physical activity has been pointed out as one of the causes to this. Children's daily mobility, like the journey to school and transport to leisure activity is an opportunity for increasing children's physical activity. Unlike school trips, the lei...

To shed light on the relationships between noise exposure, exposure to air pollution, noise sensitivity, demographic and lifestyle factors and self-reported health, alternative explanatory models are explored. Using structural equation models, the empirical support for different causal models are assessed. The analyses are performed on cross-sectio...

The proposed effect of road traffic noise on hypertension and ischemic heart disease finds mixed empirical support. One problem with many studies is that the directions of the causal relationships are not identified. This is often the case when cross-sectional data and multivariate regression models are utilised. The aim of the study was to explore...

In this study exposure–response relationships between annoyance from dust/grime and exhaust/smell, and indicators of air pollution (NO2, PM10 and PM2.5) for Norway have been established. The relationships show a significant increase in air pollution annoyance as a function of the exposure indicators. The error bands for the estimated relationships...

In this paper exposure–response relationships for Norway are compared against those developed in a Swiss, Swedish and a European multi-site study. The exposure–response relationships link annoyance from vehicular air pollution with exposure to nitrogen dioxide and pulmonary matter. By harmonising the relationships derived from the separate studies,...

In 2006 respondents (n=844) from Oslo and Kristiansand participated in a survey on risk perception on different travel modes. In addition, interviews with 222 persons were conducted while they were travelling on the metro or by bicycle. Results indicated that respondents worried about security issues on public transport modes, while private transpo...

Studies of human reactions to noise have often also studied possible impacts of nonacoustic variables such as income, education and occupational status. While such social status variables have been shown to modify health outcomes they do not have any important effect in noise-annoyance studies. However, the socio-acoustic research analyses usually...

In 2004 an urban street in Oslo was rebuilt with broader sidewalks, narrower roadway and fewer parking slots. This analysis evaluates how the street is functioning after these changes with respect to goods delivery, parking and the residents' and visitors' perception of the street environment. Traffic calming in urban streets is done to improve the...

228 respondents from the Norwegian municipality of Åmot were interviewed in May 2005 about their experience of noise and their attitudes towards adjacent military activities. The study is a follow-up of previous studies conducted in 1996 and 1999, and investigates the effect of Rødsmoen military training field. The results show that people are quit...

In this survey about children's physical environment, activities and daily travel about 1750 parents and children in the age group 6 - 12 years have answered questions about traffic and possibilities for playing in the nabourhood, traffic conditions on the way to school, and the school trip. Information is also given about traffic education, playin...

As a predictor of noise annoyance from road traffic, noise exposure is most often calculated at the most exposed side of the dwelling or apartment. This paper investigates whether an adverse neighbourhood soundscape – noisy areas along roads in the immediate neighbourhood of the dwelling – contributes to residential noise annoyance. The research hy...

In 2005, 7500 pupils in the primary school in Norway were asked about their journey to school and how they experienced traffic safety. Together with a study conducted in 2002 the study functions as an evaluation of the national "Active way to school" project. The results show that there has been little change in travel habits since 2002. Most child...

Exposure–effect relationships between the level of road traffic noise at the most exposed side of a dwelling's façade and the residents' reactions to road traffic noise have been estimated. The relationships are based on five Norwegian socio-acoustic studies featuring 18 study areas from two cities and a total of near 4000 respondents. The survey q...

An experiment was carried out to investigate 6-year olds ability to learn traffic safe behaviour by the use of a tabletop model. The main purpose of the training was to teach the children to look for safe spots to cross the road. Children from two schools in Norway (92 children all in all) were randomly divided into an experimental group and a cont...

In the town of Drammen a major re-routing of the main roads system is being carried out. The Drammen road package will redistribute traffic from central town areas to a new ring road system with several tunnels. In 2003 804 respondents from several sub-areas of Drammen were interviewed about their opinions of neighbourhood quality and traffic. This...

Two samples of six year olds (46 pupils), received training in safe road traffic behaviour, especially to look for safe spots to cross the road. Training was based on the use of a physical model (scale 1:40) representing various traffic environments. The children at both schools were tested before and after training, and compared to a control group...