2017-05-11. Slides: rpubs.com/RobinLovelace.

Contents

  • Where will cycling uptake happen?
  • Recent additions to the PCT
  • Tech for cycling uptake
  • Question: who has heard of the PCT?
  • Who has used the PCT?

Where will cycling uptake happen?

Prior work (source: Lovelace et al. 2017)

Tool Scale Coverage Public access Format of output Levels of analysis Software licence
Propensity to Cycle Tool National England Yes Online map A, OD, R, RN Open source
Prioritization Index City Montreal No GIS-based P, A, R Proprietary
PAT Local Parts of Dublin No GIS-based A, OD, R Proprietary
Usage intensity index City Belo Horizonte No GIS-based A, OD, R, I Proprietary
Bicycle share model National England, Wales No Static A, R Unknown
Cycling Potential Tool City London No Static A, I Unknown
Santa Monica model City Santa Monica No Static P, OD, A Unknown

The PCT team

"If you want to go far, go as a team"

Robin Lovelace (Lead Developer, University of Leeds)

  • James Woodcock (Principal Investigator, Cambridge University)
  • Anna Goodman (Lead Data Analyst, LSHTM)
  • Rachel Aldred (Lead Policy and Practice, Westminster University)
  • Ali Abbas (User Interface, University of Cambridge)
  • Alvaro Ullrich (Data Management, University of Cambridge)
  • Nikolai Berkoff (System Architecture, Independent Developer)
  • Malcolm Morgan (GIS and infrastructure expert, UoL)

Policy feedback

"The PCT is a brilliant example of using Big Data to better plan infrastructure investment. It will allow us to have more confidence that new schemes are built in places and along travel corridors where there is high latent demand."

  • Shane Snow: Head of Seamless Travel Team, Sustainable and Acessible Travel Division

"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

The PCT in CWIS and LCWIP

Included in Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Strategy (CWIS) and the Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP)

How the PCT works

Shows on the map where there is high cycling potential, for 4 scenarios of change

  • Government Target
  • Gender Equality
  • Go Dutch
  • Ebikes

Scenario shift in desire lines

Source: Lovelace et al. (2017)

  • Origin-destination data shows 'desire lines'
  • How will these shift with cycling uptake

Scenario shift in network load

A live demo for Leeds

"Actions speak louder than words"

Recent additions to the PCT

Travel to schools layer

Prototype online

Overlaying propensity to cycle to school and work

New LSOA layer (Morgan et al. in Press)

Where to prioritise? (CyIPT)

  • Cycling Infrastructure Prioritisation Toolkit (CyIPT): DfT-funded toolkit for cycling infrastructure prioritisation
  • Combines many datasets ("PCT + Infra") to identify 'low hanging fruit'

Tech for cycling uptake

Crowd sourced data (Strava vs PCT)

Innovative infrastructure

More research needed to find what works

"few studies link ridership with newer (innovative) types of infra- structure, particularly intersection treatments. More research is needed on the effect of bicycle-specific treatments, including bike boxes, traffic signals, and two-stage queue boxes, and treatments where cycle tracks reach intersections"

  • But whole network design found to be important (Buehler and Dill 2016).

Recommendations

  1. Use the Propensity to Cycle Tool. Download its data.
  2. Design cycling networks not schemes (Buehler and Dill 2016)
  3. Design for the long term - have a vision and prioritise it
  4. Experiment, monitor, adapt. (See experimental Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) case in Tavistock Place)
  5. Get yourself and team skilled up in open source software
  6. Collaborate

References

Buehler, Ralph, and Jennifer Dill. 2016. “Bikeway Networks: A Review of Effects on Cycling.” Transport Reviews 36 (1): 9–27. doi:10.1080/01441647.2015.1069908.

Lovelace, Robin, Anna Goodman, Rachel Aldred, Nikolai Berkoff, Ali Abbas, and James Woodcock. 2017. “The Propensity to Cycle Tool: An Open Source Online System for Sustainable Transport Planning.” Journal of Transport and Land Use, December. doi:10.5198/jtlu.2016.862.