Making the cut: UK spending review special - Steer Davies Gleave

policy and planning cycling
Pedal power
As the cycling culture continues to grow in the UK, we offer ways
to help authorities instil and improve cycling in their areas.
By Pete Zanzottera
It’s not just the recent
launch of London’s new
cycle hire scheme; the
momentum behind
cycling has steadily been
building over the last
several years in the UK.
Journeys by cycle in the
capital have doubled in the last decade.
The Cycling Town initiative has increased
cycling in the participating towns by 27%
on average in just three years. With political
backers and cycling enthusiasts such as
Johnson, Villiers, Baker and Mr Cameron
himself, cycling remains high on the
government’s agenda. And as a relatively
low-cost means to achieve transport
objectives, now is a real opportunity to
push the bike out even further. Here are
a few ways Steer Davies Gleave can help
develop cycling strategies for local areas:
Getting audited
Many cities and towns have some routes
but few have a well-connected and
differentiated network that is coherent and
easy to understand. Using cycle-based
video analysis, connected to GPS and
other sensors, we can conduct extensive
and detailed audits on cycle networks.
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For example, in Potters Bar, we have
used these methods to capture all of the
roads and potential routes to classify the
existing network according to the three
Bikeability training levels (based on
cyclists’ experience and confidence):
t level 1 – off-road and traffic-free routes
t level 2 – light-trafficked roads
and residential areas
t level 3 – busier roads with
higher levels of traffic
Improving networks
Working out suggested improvements
to the networks and prioritising them is
something that we understand completely.
In some cases this may involve developing
a full business case and generating cost
benefit analysis figures. Generally the costs
to build a network are relatively easy to
calculate and it is possible to put forward
a set of improvements that could be built
quickly. Calculating benefits for cycle
routes is more complex and very sensitive
to the number of existing cyclists and the
estimate of new cyclists. Our work focuses
on improving the connectivity of a cycle
network and providing ‘missing links’ that
will help to encourage more people to cycle.
Mapping it out
Featured in the last issue of The Review,
our new Cycling Potential Index (CPI) tool
visually displays an area’s underlying
attractiveness for cycling in terms of
topography, demographics and potential
usage. The results can be overlaid on
network improvements to help judge where a
cycle route or network will be most effective.
Getting into their heads
In addition, having insight into the
behaviour of cycling – who does it, why,
where and when – is invaluable when
trying to promote and encourage new
cycling schemes. Steer Davies Gleave has
undertaken innovative research and analysis
regarding projects such as the London Cycle
Hire Scheme and Cycle Superhighways.
This work has particularly focused on
route alignments, user profiles, potential
demand and uptake of proposed work and
home-end Smarter Travel measures.
To find out more contact
Pete Zanzottera
t +44 (0) 113 389 6400
e pete.zanzottera@sdgworld.net