Integrating Bicycles into Applied Models of Urban Transport

Abstract

which have substantial direct infrastructure requirements, such as road provision and public transport systems. It is unusual to pay a great deal of attention to non-motorised transport modes, such as cycling, as these are typically non-intrusive and require very limited infrastructure. However, bicycles need to be integrated into transport planning models, if only because of increasing political pressure for greater consideration of alternative and sustainable transport modes and increasing pressure to allocate resources efficiently. It is widely recognised that extensive bicycle use requires the opportunity, or facilities, to neutralise the effect of dominating motorised traffic flows. The role of transport modelling in relation to bicycles may be considered as (i) determining the current level of demand for cycling; (ii) demand for cycling that is currently suppressed by sub-standard facilities or specific obstacles to cycle trips; (iii) determining what if any additional demand could be generated by providing facilities specifically for cycling (elasticity of demand) or changing conditions for competing modes (cross elasticity); (iv) identifying what trip distribution characteristics are observed with different cycling conditions; and, (v) how increasing the level of cycle facilities and cycling would impact on network performance. In order to answer these questions it is necessary to have a modelling framework for cycling that dovetails with existing models of transport used for planning at micro and macro levels. This paper discusses such a framework.