Anna Niska

Anna Niska is Director of the Cycling Centre and a Senior Research Leader at VTI, with overall responsibility for research on cycling. Anna received her PhD in 2002 from KTH, with a thesis on winter maintenance and cycling in winter conditions, and has since continued to conduct applied research on cycle infrastructure and cycling. Her core area is the importance of infrastructure for cyclists’ accessibility, road safety and comfort.

I am passionate about applied research and truly want my research to make a difference in practice. My aim is for my research to help improve conditions for those who walk and cycle, and to lead to more people choosing active modes of transport, with benefits for health, the environment and the climate as a result.

Through close collaboration with the Swedish Transport Administration, municipalities, contractors and manufacturers, Anna’s research has been used as a basis for handbooks, advice and guidelines, and in the development of methods, equipment and working practices. It is, among other things, as a result of Anna’s research that the winter maintenance method known as “sweep-salting” is now applied for snow clearance and anti-slip treatment on walking and cycling paths in a number of Swedish municipalities.

Another example where Anna’s research has been put into practice concerns cyclists’ safety and accessibility during roadworks, which has, among other things, led to a new Swedish standard for temporary traffic control devices for walking and cycling.

Anna has also led and contributed to several government assignments, including on cycling among children and young people and on national targets for increased cycling.

She also contributes to public debate through frequent engagement as a lecturer and regular appearances in the media.
For her long-standing work to improve opportunities for more people to choose cycling, Anna was awarded the Swedish Association of Traffic Engineers’ Traffic Award in 2016 and Swedish Cycling’s Advocacy Award in 2017.