Temporal shifts in area-level access to cycling infrastructure for equity-deserving groups in three Canadian cities: A descriptive epidemiologic study.

Abstract

Multi-city investigations of how access to cycling infrastructure changes over time for equity-deserving communities have been absent in Canada and are scarce internationally. In this descriptive epidemiological study, we evaluated how area-level (ecological) access to cycling infrastructure varied by neighbourhood socio-demographic profiles in three Canadian cities (Montréal, Vancouver, and Victoria) across the 2011, 2016, and 2021 census years. For each city and year, we calculated the road network distance to the nearest cycling infrastructure from the population-representative centroids of the census dissemination area as the outcome. The independent variables were the area-level proportions of equity-deserving groups. These were Indigenous people, racialized people, recent immigrants, people in low-income households, tenants, individuals with lower educational attainment, children, and older adults. We employed linear and Bayesian spatial regression methods to examine the relationship between the tertile proportions of each population group and the outcome for each city and census year. Areas with a higher proportion of children had lower proximity to cycling infrastructure, regardless of city or census year. Similar patterns were observed for areas with a higher proportion of older adults, although to a lesser extent. The inequity across the proportion of children narrowed over time in Montréal, but not in Vancouver or Victoria. In contrast, areas with a greater proportion of low-income populations had equal or better access to cycling infrastructure across all cities and time periods. These findings on access to cycling infrastructure are concerning due to the lack of age-friendliness in the implementation of infrastructure in these cities.