Calculator tool on potential impact

Need for effect calculations ex-ante for bicycle measures

CyclePRINT offers insight into the effectiveness of future infrastructure measures. This makes it possible to compare the effects of potential interventions in the cycling infrastructure and to select the most effective measures. The calculator tool on potential impact calculates the increase in potential bicycle accessibility, travel time gains for current cyclists and provides an estimate of the modal shift to the bicycle.
 

Methodology

The core of the calculator tool is a simplified traffic model. It has been set up as a quick scan to be able to compare the order of magnitude of the effects of different infrastructure variants within a short period of time. It is therefore ideally suited for use in interactive sessions and workshops for determining promising infrastructure development scenarios. The calculator tool on potential impact contains detailed data about bicycle traffic and uses empirical travel times. Because a fully multimodal traffic model does not fit the character of the quick scan, however, no separate networks or travel times for public transport and car are included in the calculation system. The four steps of the calculation system are:

1. Trip generation:

• The trip production is calculated for different types of residents and households
• The total number of trips generated is determined per zone and for each design

2. Modal split:

• The bicycle share is determined per zone and for each motif based on the urbanity class
• The result is two numbers: number of departing bike trips and total number of trips

3. Distribution:

• With a gravity model, the bicycle trips are distributed over the destination zones
• For commuting, it is iteratively guaranteed that workplaces are not "over-occupied"

4. Measure:

• Measures relate to bicycle travel time: removing delays or new links
• The difference in bicycle share is determined per relationship on the basis of the old and new travel time.

Measures

In the calculator tool, users can simulate and determine new infrastructural measures. These measures can include the reduction of delay on current connections, the removal of bottlenecks and the development of new infrastructure connections. The benefits are based on travel times between the situation and the desired situation. The situation is based on the empirical travel times and delays based on the GPS research.

To compare the effects of various measures the calculator tool on potential impact gives insight in:

• the change in potential bicycle accessibility;
• the travel time gain for cyclists;
• number of extra bicycle movements.

The changes in potential bicycle accessibility are determined by the difference between accessibility in the current situation and the new situation.