This measure was part of a package of measures aiming to increase the use of non-motorised modes as well as reducing the number of private cars entering the city and circulating within its neighbourhoods. The extension of the pedestrian and cycling network prompted a steady increase in the use of the bicycle, meaning a 33 percent increase during the CIVITAS project (2008-2011). In 2011 the increase in cycling levels was 26 percent compared with the previous year.
In terms of modal shift in favour of sustainable modes of transport, results were moderate in the short term, achieving an overall reduction in car use of 0.1 percent as compared with the situation before the CIVITAS project started. It should be highlighted that this achievement is made in a context of a steady increase in car travel, thus it can be considered a positive result. On the other hand, walking levels seemed to be following a slightly decreasing trend, which is not a desirable result (0.3 percent reduction in modal share as compared to the situation before the project started). Attention should be placed to this issue in the coming years.
The calculations on the benefit to cost ratio indicate that benefits were nearly six times larger than costs (BCR = 5.87). This result reveals that the implementation of non-motorized infrastructure was a very cost-effective measure.