Scientists for Cycling Colloquium, Aveiro, Portugal, 2016-11-18

Presentation structure

  • Context
  • Software and methods
  • Implementation in the PCT

Context

Motivation I: Practical need

Disjointed networks

Motivation II: Current tools not suitable

Software and methods

Why R?

See the free, open source, online tutorial github.com/robinlovelace/Creating-maps-in-R.

  • Mature framework for computational work
  • Widely used by governments, industry and academia
  • Vast support network
  • Strong support for spatial data
  • Free and open source

Creating desire lines in code

Reproducible code

library(stplanr)
## Loading required package: sp
print(flow[1,1:3])
##        Area.of.residence Area.of.workplace All
## 920573         E02002361         E02002361 109
l = od2line(flow = flow, cents)

An OD matrix on a map

plot(cents)
plot(l, add = T)

Distance decay

How it works

See Lovelace, Goodman et al. (2016) for details

How it works II

It depends on trip distances

Modal share of trips made by cycling for English commutes in West Yorkshire (left) and Oxfordshire (right) currently and under 4 scenarios of change.Modal share of trips made by cycling for English commutes in West Yorkshire (left) and Oxfordshire (right) currently and under 4 scenarios of change.

Modal share of trips made by cycling for English commutes in West Yorkshire (left) and Oxfordshire (right) currently and under 4 scenarios of change.

Route allocation

Route network analysis

Implementation

Live demo of the PCT

Policy impact

“The PCT shows the country’s great potential to get on their bikes, highlights the areas of highest possible growth and will be a useful innovation for local authorities to get the greatest bang for their buck from cycling investments  and realise cycling potential.” Andrew Jones, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport

“A world first from a brilliant academic team. As a Department we should be celebrating this example of innovation in promoting the UK’s capability to deliver innovation in transport planning.” Pauline Reeves, DfT Deputy Director Sustainable Accessible Transport

Policy impact II

“Initial outputs from the PCT for Cornwall have already been useful in evidencing that our relatively hilly area has good cycling potential, concentrated in specific areas. The areas we are focusing capital investment e.g. Bodmin are indicated as having high potential, despite low current cycling. Given the greater potential under the E-bike scenario, we will be exploring ways to make this option more affordable.” Victoria Fraser, Team Leader, Cornwall Council "ECF is pleased to support the PCT and its international potential to use data for the development of bicycle policies" Randy Rzewnicki, European Cycling Federation

Making it work in other countries

Needs origin-destination data, widely available:

  • From census (UK)
  • From travel survey (needs to 'scale up')
  • From mobile telephone companies
  • From a Spatial Interaction model

In summary…

  • The PCT provides an evidence base about where to intervene
  • Freely available for all to use
  • Open source and transparent
  • Complements local knowledge, tools and data
  • Should help get people on same page

Thanks for listening!

  • Thanks to the institutions behind the PCT team: Universities of Cambridge, Leeds and Westminster.

  • The PCT was delivered in partnership with Brook Lyndhurst (Phase I) and Atkins (Phase II).

  • Thanks to CycleStreets.net and everyone who has contributed

  • Thanks to the Department for Transport for funding and especially to Shane Snow for commissioning the tool, and for support and feedback.

  • See @robinlovelace for updates from me!

Links