Which came first: the plans or the data? While perhaps not as known as the classic “chicken or the egg” dilemma, the question may be just as timeless. While working with urban and regional development, traffic and mobility planners need to collect robust data to design and make a case for quality cycling planning and infrastructure projects. However, they also need well-developed plans to know which data to collect. Alongside both qualitative and quantitative data, planners in the Nordic Region also work with a range of communication methods to gain support for cycling projects that enable safe and connected transport and improved quality of life for all residents.
In this planning memo, we review the latest academic literature around data, communication, and political advocacy from the Nordic Region. We also summarise how several Nordic cities and regions work with data and communication in their cycling strategies.
From the academic literature, we found that awareness campaigns are often discussed in relation to improving cycling safety, especially for children. When it comes to collecting and making decisions based on cycling data, studies highlight the importance of mixed methods approaches and describe nuances for data collection.
Based on a policy review, we found that local and regional strategies emphasise the role of branding their city as a cycling city, educating young people and newcomers about cycling norms, improving wayfinding, and making targeted campaigns to improve the safety and experience of cycling, thus encouraging more people to choose the bicycle.
Nordic cities and regions gather cycling data through surveys, trackers and manual counts, and sources like traffic accident reports. The municipalities and regions work with this data to gain insights on number of cyclists, times of travel, perceptions of cycling, and qualities of cycling infrastructure, among other figures. The City of Helsinki offers several noteworthy practices in their work with data, especially when it comes to monitoring frameworks, extending beyond cycling counts and road quality and including more reflective data on, for example, how many municipal employees work with cycling and how the city’s cycling investments compare to other top cycling cities.
Ongoing challenges for Nordic cycling practitioners include sorting and making use of available data, ensuring that the right data is collected with the available budgets, and combatting the backlash that they often face in their work to make safer and more accessible environments for all residents.
This is the second memo in a series summarising research and policy concerning bicycle planning in the Nordic countries. The aim is to provide practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and other actors with insights into the academic discourse, to highlight how Nordic cities and regions are working with the topic, to note useful tools and initiatives, and to identify ongoing challenges. In doing so, the memo seeks to support informed decision-making for transport planning in the Nordic Region. The content of this memo was developed based on desk research as well as inputs from an online workshop held in November 2025 among the Nordic Cycle Network—a network of practitioners from around 20 cities and regions across Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.