Cycling and walking infrastructure planning and evaluation

Services

We aspire to bring a rigorous and quantitative approach to the planning and evaluation of cycling and walking infrastructure. Our focus is on identifying the practical lessons from projects and conveying these lessons in a clear and concise manner for decision makers.

Blog

38 min read
Cycling participation is promoted by all three tiers of government as a space efficient transport mode and as a means to maintain physical and mental health. Governments commit varying levels of expenditure to encouraging cycling through infrastructure, education and promotion. HOwevber, determining whether these investments are achieving the desired outcomes can be tricky, particularly if we’re interested in affecting population-level changes. These wider changes will be affected by many things, including social trends, changes in local and regional traffic levels and even demographic shifts1.

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8 min read
In early 2013 the City of Melbourne removed a general purpose traffic lane in each direction of La Trobe Street and installed a protected bicycle lane alongside the kerb and parallel parking between the protected bicycle lane and remaining traffic lane. The bicycle lane extends, with a few exceptions, from Victoria Street to Spencer Street over a distance of around 1.8 km. Prior to the construction of the protected bicycle lane cyclist treatments varied from a conventional painted bicycle lane between kerbside parking and the general purpose traffic lane, a clearway bicycle lane against the kerb (with parking in off-peak periods) and no dedicated provision.

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8 min read
THere has been some argument in London along the lines that the rollout of cycleways there has contributed to increased air pollution. Sadly the bike lanes have resulted in a measurable pollution increase 7 X EU limits in parts of London as traffic comes to standstill — Robert Winston (@ProfRWinston) June 15, 2016 The argument seems to go that by converting traffic (i.e. motor vehicle) lanes with bicycle lanes congestion will increase and hence so too will air pollution.

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60 min read
Strava is a mobile app and website widely used by bicycle riders to track their riding. The app logs GPS position coordinates and timestamps. Strava Metro is a data product that provides counts of bicycle trips by time of day (in one-minute bins) and direction of travel by location. The Metro product assign trips to any GIS road layer, often an OpenStreetMap network, facilitating queries by link and node.

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10 min read
The effect of vehicle speed on crash likelihood and injury severity has a strong theretical basis in physics and biomechanics, and has been demonstrated many times through empirical study. Moreover, the effect of speed humps and cushions as a means of controlling speeds is well established. Combining vertical deflection with cycling and walking crossings of roadways is well established practice (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2), both at mid-block path crossings and raised thresholds at T-junctions.

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Projects

All Evaluation Safety Data Surveys

Cycling near-market

What quality of cycling infrastructure is required to attract new riders?

Shimmy cycling routes

An evaluation of low cost connected local road cycling routes in the City of Darebin.

National Cycling Participation Survey

Survey to track population level changes in cycling participation. The survey has occurred biennially since 2011.

Active Transport Economic Appraisal Tool

Developed an economic evaluation tool based on the NGTSM for cycling and walking activity.

Cycling trends in Perth

Undertook an analysis of automatic cycling counts data and report on cycling activity in metropolitan Perth.

Mountain Hwy Roundabout Improvements

Evaluation of sharrow markings at an arterial road roundabout in Melbourne.

Cycling Data Strategy

Reviewed past data practices and recommended a data strategy focused on automatic counters for the Western Australian Department of Transport.

Evaluation of Car Dooring Intervention on St Kilda Road

An evaluation was undertaken of a variable messaging sign and engagement with riders on car dooring along St Kilda Road.

Cyclist-actuated warning sign at roundabout

An evaluation of a cyclist-actuated warning sign at the Beach Road roundabout, Black Rock.

Frome St Bikeway Evaluation

Independent evaluation of the Frome Street Bikeway in the Adelaide CBD, undertaken with Studio Huss.

Providing for bicycle riders at local road rounabouts

Guidelines for providing for bicycle riders at local road roundabouts.

Evaluation of Glenferrie Road 'door zone' bicycle lanes

An innovative bicycle lane treatment on a road in a busy shopping strip with trams and a high risk of car dooring.

Guide to Measuring Walking

Developed a guide for local councils on measuring walking activity (with Malcolm Daff Consulting and Jo Eady).

Effectiveness of On-road Bicycle Lanes at Roundabouts

A review of the evidence concerning bicycle lanes in and near roundabouts, and empirical data collection on cyclist lateral tracking at roundabouts. (study undertaken in collaboration with ViaStrada)

Automatic cyclist counters

Field trials of automatic cyclist counters in Brisbane.

On-street bike parking corral

Evaluation of an on-street bike parking corral on Bay St, Port Melbourne.

Evaluation of Shared Lane Markings (Sharrows)

Evaluation of sharrows as a means of encouraging cyclists to track towards the middle of a traffic lane.

Evaluation of a buffered bicycle lane

A before-after evaluation of cyclist lateral tracking on a bicycle lane with painted buffers between parked cars and the traffic lane.

Bicycle rider collisions with car doors

A review of the injury burden and countermeasures for car dooring.

Automatic bicycle counts

Developed a website to analysis and display data from automatic bicycle counters across Australia.

Clients

Recent clients include:

  • State Goverment
    • VicRoads
    • Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads
    • Western Australian Department of Transport
  • Local Government
    • City of Melbourne
    • City of Hobart
    • City of Darebin
    • City of Sydney
    • Banyule City Council

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