Increasing Bicycling & Walking

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) has been an important subject matter for urban planners, architects, and urban designers. Recently, transportation planners have also been interested in this research because environmental design of spaces can help increase walking and bicycling trips. In 2020, Charles Brown of Equitable Cities, served as a senior researcher/principal investigator with the New Jersey Bicycle and Pedestrian Resource Center (NJ BPRC) for this report, which looks at four case studies to identify best practices for implementing CPTED to increase bicycling and walking opportunities. These case studies focus on CPTED approaches to improve safety on streets and roadways, parks and open spaces, trails, and through community engagement and leadership. The case studies were selected based on project scope and timeframes, their extent of implementation, availability of data and information, and are as follows:

• The City of Paterson CPTED Project in NJ
• Lower Kinnear Park Enhancement Plan – Seattle, WA
• The Bloomingdale Trail – Chicago, IL
• The SafeGrowth/CPTED Project – New Orleans, LA

However, due to the limited availability of statistical and quantitative evidence on the effectiveness of CPTED in the US and NJ, future research should be done to evaluate and quantify its effectiveness in reducing crime/fear of crime and promoting walking and bicycling through advanced quantitative and qualitative research, analyzing change in crime rates, bicycle and pedestrian volumes, feelings of safety, level of engagement in community activities or belonging within the community. Similarly, studies could examine the relationship between CPTED strategies, measures of crime/fear of crime, and the level of bicycling and walking through advanced statistical models.