PSI current research

Walking and cycling in local transport plans

Project Leader: Mayer Hillman

Sponsor: DETR

Period: January 2000

Background

When the Guidance on Provisional Local Transport Plans was published in April 1999, a simplified version of NATA was included. This differed from the original in two significant ways:

• It requires an AST for the whole Local Transport Plan as well as for individual major schemes
• cycling and walking move from the qualitative area of accessibility to the quantitative area of economy. Non-motorised user traffic volumes should be calculated and the costs or benefits of any modal shift included in the overall economic appraisal.

However there are three significant problems in including non-motorised modes in the appraisal process with the same level of accuracy as motorised modes:

• lack of reliable travel data for cycling and walking, e.g. journey frequency, length, purpose, origin and destination, disaggregation of data into social class, age, household availability of a car, trip generation potential of specific activities or developments
• lack of an agreed valuation of the perceived costs and benefits of cycling and walking
• difficulty in using modelling to predict future cycling and walking traffic volumes, especially in a detailed traffic model.

The DETR 'Guidance on the Methodology for Multi-Modal Studies' (1999) takes the development of NATA a stage further, providing more detailed guidance on how schemes can be assessed against the White Paper objectives and sub-objectives.

It also places NATA in a wider appraisal framework. Appraisal should also consider:

• the degree to which the local objectives would be achieved
• the extent to which the problems identified would be ameliorated
• supporting analyses of distribution and equity, affordability and financial sustainability, and practicality and public acceptability.

The project described in this brief aims to:

• identify the deficiencies in traffic data which prevent modelling and appraisal of walking and cycling with the same level of confidence as with other modes
• investigate the feasibility of obtaining robust values for the environmental and economic impact of walking and cycling within an LTP appraisal, as well as identifying associated sustainability and quality of life indicators
• develop a low-cost approach to modelling and appraising cycling and walking, perhaps using spreadsheets or adapting existing software.

Plan of work

Allottt Transportation is currently working on a major integrated transport study for the unitary authority of Warrington Borough Council. This involves developing both strategic and traffic models, as well as a comprehensive range of public transport, cycling, walking and other initiatives. There is a special emphasis on assessing the sustainability of each aspect of the study's proposals. With the support of the client, our project will use the data we are gathering in the Warrington study to test out the new modelling and appraisal tools. The work will continue over the next few months and the data gathered will continue to be available to the study.

Project deliverables

Revised Guidance

The present chapter on appraisal (Annex E) in the Guidance on Provisional Local Transport Plans (April 1999) already specifies the basic requirements for assessing all modes on a comparable basis. The project will deliver tools to make this assessment easier, more accurate, more realistic and more transparent for local authorities in the future. These aids will be designed to fit fully within the NATA framework.

The next edition of the Guidance, relating to full Local Transport Plans due to be submitted in July 2000, should advise local authorities to make use of our aids and should provide guidance on gathering extra data to input into them. These might include additional physical features of the scheme, e.g.

• proposed speed limits
• crossings and other facilities for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users
• public transport facilities (bus stops, bus gates etc)
• any proposed traffic calming

and traffic flows for walking cycling and public transport ridership as well as private cars.

Modelling and appraisal tools

In preparing their case for funding of major schemes, local authorities commonly use software tools to model the changes to the infrastructure being proposed, and to predict the traffic volumes which can be expected during the lifetime of the project. Usually this is repeated for any alternative solutions, and for the 'do-minimum' situation where no scheme is implemented. Common software packages to perform this function.