Why do you monitor and evaluate?

Although the reasons for regions and metropolitan areas to invest in cycle highway development differ, the climate for substantial investment in high quality cycling infrastructure has improved over the last decade. The arguments for investment such as the positive environmental impact, improving economical accessibility, health of residents, liveability and social well-being in the region need no further ado. Yet, the high investments in cycle highways as comfortable, high quality cycling infrastructure increasingly require better quantitative support in terms of social cost and benefits. To better substantiate the impact of cycle highway development a monitor and evaluation strategy is required.

Three main reasons to monitor and evaluate:

to justify investments in cycle highways;
to get insights into the quality of the infrastructure and experiences of the users. After the development of the cycle highway, it is important to know whether the cycle infrastructure meets the requirements of the users, where potential improvements are needed and whether the plans work out as they should;
to use the monitoring data to learn from cycling behaviour. Especially interesing for road authorities and public bodies.

Taking the Life Cycle Highway into account, cycle highway planning requires a different level of (potential) cycling information than the eventual evaluation from cyclists using the cycle highway after being developed. Within the CHIPS-project monitoring and evaluation is divided into the ex-ante evaluation in the planning phase, monitoring of the impact during implementation of investments and the ex-post evaluation of the number of cyclists and changes in travel behaviour and activity patterns.

In the appraisal (ex-ante) phase a forecast is developed about the impact of cycle highway development. Several tools have been explored to create an impact analysis. Within that process, it is common understanding that not all regions are on the same page with regard to awareness, ambition and practical issues as data availability. The objective in the CHIPS-project was to create an interactive cycle highway monitoring and impact analyses scheme.

During the monitoring and (ex-post) evaluation phases, the strength was the already existing state-of-the-art knowledge about the translation GPS and count data into cycle policy relevant insights. One of the biggest challenges was to create a(n international) common ground to work with concerning data structure(s). The strategy therefore was to use all available cycling data in the regions (counts, GPS, surveys) and transform this into a dashboard, where regions with less data could also start making use off it directly and increase gradually.

Go to:
Measuring impact of decisions
Evaluate quality of infrastructure
Learning from cycle behaviour

Learn more about CHIPS project

Cycle Highways Innovation for smarter People Transport and Spatial Planning

CHIPS will develop and promote cycle highways as an effective and cost efficient low carbon solution for commuting towards and from urban employment poles.

Project partners from Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK will develop solutions that will help regions and mobility stakeholders to:

Position cycle highways as a new mobility product
Overcome physical and behavioural barriers that keep commuters from using cycle highways
Maximize synergies between cycle highways and trains, buses and cars
Upgrade cycle highways to key structuring elements in future spatial planning
Monitor performance and assess impact

First step | Plan

Plan Phase

A cycle highway facilitates citizens to move by bicycle from one place to another. It connects residential areas with business districts, city centers or transportation hubs. To determine the right location and make the right connection a calculation of the expected use is needed, taking into account the future developments to plan a future proof cycle highway.

Main objective: development of a virtual planning tool for potential cycle highways

Next step | Design

Design Phase

The challenge is to design the best suitable cycle highway for that specific location. Therefor different criteria such as attractiveness, wayfinding, size and directness have to be taken into account.

Main objectives: a cycle highway assessment tool to evaluate the design and readability concepts in the (Virtual) Living Lab.

Next step | Sell

Sell Phase

Communication and campaigns will help to stimulate (new) cyclists to use the cycle highway. Commuters are the main target group. The engagement of employers is key to reach the commuters and create a modal shift from car to (e)-bike.

Main objectives: designing campaigns, development of service point and mobile HUBs.

Next step | Evaluate

Evaluate Phase

Final step is to monitor and evaluate the effects of the development. Are people using the new cycle infrastructure? By using GPS-data, information from counters and traffic lights relevant information about the use can be filtered.

Main objectives: monitoring and evaluation dashboard and a CO2 reduction calculator.