SnowHowYear-round active mobility – resources and network

Resources

25 resources

  • GuidelineCore resource

    Citizen Activation Guide: Promoting Year-Round Active Mobility (YRAM)

    Tallinn University of Technology · 2025 · Baltic Sea Region

    The Citizen Activation Guide (CAG), developed by Tallinn University of Technology as part of the BATS project, provides a practical framework for municipalities and mobility planners to engage residents and encourage year-round active mobility, particularly during colder and darker seasons. The guide is structured around three questions: WHY citizen engagement is needed, TO WHOM activities should be targeted, and HOW participation and behaviour change can be supported. It explains how to assess local mobility conditions, identify residents' needs, motivations and barriers, develop user personas, and select appropriate participatory or behavioural approaches. Practical guidance covers communication campaigns, focus groups, workshops, digital mapping, public meetings, walking and cycling field visits, citizen advisory committees, and nudging techniques. The accompanying CAG Canvas supports systematic planning, while templates for resident surveys, focus groups and campaign checklists help practitioners implement and evaluate engagement activities. The guide also includes examples from seven BATS pilot areas across the Baltic Sea Region and links citizen engagement activities to monitoring and evaluation. It is particularly useful for cities seeking to move beyond generic awareness campaigns towards targeted, evidence-informed approaches that address the specific barriers preventing people from walking and cycling throughout the year.

    • Behaviour & Mobility Management
    • Communication & Engagement
    • Policy, Strategy & Governance
  • GuidelineCore resource

    Fix the maintenance - Promoting the safety of year-round bicycle and pedestrian route usage in Finnish cities

    Timo Perälä, Matti Hirvonen, Martti Tulenheimo, Pekka Tahkola · 2024 · Finland

    A practical guide for Finnish municipalities on improving year-round maintenance of walking and cycling infrastructure. It highlights the safety, health and economic benefits of high-quality winter maintenance and provides recommendations for winter-resilient infrastructure design, maintenance prioritisation, service procurement, quality management and winter maintenance methods.

    • Maintenance & Operations
    • Health, Safety & Wellbeing
  • GuidelineCore resource

    Snow Space Guide – guidelines for a better winter

    Eeva Huuhtanen, Timo Perälä · 2024 · Finland

    A comprehensive guide to handling snow and dimensioning snow storage space in the urban environment. It explains why year-round planning matters and how it supports municipalities' strategic goals, and walks through every stage of the built-environment process, from legislation and strategic planning to street-space supervision. Intended for commissioners, planners, builders and maintenance operators in both the public and private sectors.

    • Planning & Design
    • Maintenance & Operations
    • Policy, Strategy & Governance
  • ToolkitCore resource

    YRAM - Diagnostics and intervention toolkit

    Milos Mladenovic · 2024 · Baltic Sea Region

    This toolkit is a collaborative workspace for developing innovative solutions for Year-Round Active Mobility in darkness and all-weather conditions. It offers a systematic method for mobility planners and managers to go from a wish to improve active mobility to develop a systematic plan for implementation. The toolkit consists of 8 modules, each presented on a canvas that helps stakeholders explore challenges, structure ideas and co-create solutions together. There are three flexible ways to use the canvases tailored to different levels of time, ambition, team-size and data: 1) Solo sprint, 2) Starter workshop and 3) Deep dive. The canvases can viewed on Miro and used as digital PDFs or printed to paper (A1or A2 format suggested). You find detailed instructions on how to use the materials from the Toolkit pdf-file. This toolkit is part of Output 2.3 of the BATS project.

    • Behaviour & Mobility Management
    • Communication & Engagement
    • Policy, Strategy & Governance
  • Research

    Heat stress and active travel, an eight-year national analysis in The Netherlands

    Maarten Hogeweij, Coen Bongers, Kevin Raaphorst, Huub Ploegmakers · 2026 · Netherlands

    This nationwide Dutch study investigates how heat stress affects walking and cycling behaviour using travel survey data from 178,247 respondents across eight summers (2016–2023). It examines how thermal conditions influence both the decision to travel and the duration of active travel, distinguishing between commuting and recreational journeys. The findings reveal that walking and cycling generally increase with warmer conditions but decline once heat stress becomes severe, particularly for recreational trips. Work-related active travel is less responsive to heat, suggesting that commuters may have fewer opportunities to adapt their travel behaviour. The study also explores whether urban tree canopy cover mitigates the negative effects of heat, finding limited and inconsistent evidence. The results highlight the importance of heat-resilient urban design and policies that support safe, accessible walking and cycling during increasingly frequent hot weather.

    • Data & Monitoring
    • Behaviour & Mobility Management
  • Research

    Revealing the impact of weather on changes in individual-level habitual cycling frequencies using a Bayesian framework

    Yangqian Cai, Mads Paulsen · 2026 · Switzerland

    This study uses longitudinal GPS data from 698 cyclists in Switzerland to investigate how weather conditions influence changes in habitual cycling frequency. Using Bayesian changepoint detection, it identifies the effects of snowfall, precipitation and temperature, while highlighting differences associated with e-bike ownership and cycling experience.

    • Data & Monitoring
    • Behaviour & Mobility Management
  • ResearchReport

    FinnCycle Research Project 2023–2025: Final Report and Recommendations for Finnish Cities

    Harri Vaarala · 2025 · Finland, Denmark, Netherlands

    A comparative research report examining how Finnish cities can strengthen cycling through long-term transport policy, integrated land-use planning, organisational development and sustained infrastructure investment. Drawing on practices from eight leading cycling cities in the Netherlands and Denmark, the study identifies structural barriers in Finnish cities and presents 13 recommendations for more systematic and effective cycling development, including improvements to winter maintenance.

    • Planning & Design
    • Policy, Strategy & Governance
  • Research

    Healthy Ageing and the 15-Minute Walking Environment in the Swedish Arctic Communities

    Luisa Merlo, David Chapman, Finn Nilson, Charlotta Johansson, Agneta Larsson · 2025 · Sweden, Finland, Iceland

    A study examining the 15-minute walking environment from the perspective of adults aged 70 and older in Swedish Arctic communities. The research highlights the importance of accessible everyday services, social connections and opportunities for walking without a specific destination, providing insights for age-friendly and inclusive neighbourhood planning in northern environments.

    • Policy, Strategy & Governance
    • Health, Safety & Wellbeing
  • Blog

    Addressing the policy blind spots: Age-inclusive and age-equitable outdoor spaces in the Nordic Arctic region

    Bodil Hansen Blix, Anastasia Emelyanova, Agneta Larsson, Steinunn A. Olafsdottir, Arja Rautio · 2024 · Nordic countries

    A research-based blog article highlighting gaps in Nordic ageing policies that overlook the specific needs of older adults in Arctic communities. Drawing on a policy review across Finland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland, it identifies geographical, urban–rural and indoor–outdoor biases and calls for more inclusive policies that ensure accessible, safe and welcoming outdoor environments for older people.

    • Planning & Design
    • Policy, Strategy & Governance
    • Health, Safety & Wellbeing
  • Research

    Age-inclusive Arctic outdoor spaces: a policy review in four Nordic countries

    Anastasia Emelyanova, Bodil H. Blix, Agneta Larsson, Steinunn A. Olafsdottir, Arja Rautio · 2024 · Nordic countries

    A comparative policy review examining how national ageing strategies in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland address older adults' access to outdoor spaces in rural Arctic communities. The study identifies urban–rural, south–north, indoor–outdoor and generalisation biases that overlook the specific environmental and accessibility challenges of northern regions, calling for more geographically inclusive and age-sensitive policies.

    • Planning & Design
    • Policy, Strategy & Governance
    • Health, Safety & Wellbeing

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