Conference Papers 2024

Seminar
Day 2 (19 Sep 2024), Session 5, Active travel, 11:00 - 12:30

Status
Accepted, awaiting documents

Submitted by / Abstract owner
Csaba Kelen

Authors
Csaba Kelen, Kelen Transport Consulting (presenter)
Ed Whittaker, SWECO UK
Nathaniel Chin, SWECO UK

Short abstract
Sweco developed a scalable active travel appraisal framework to ensure a robust and proportionate approach to walking and cycling assessment. This paper summarises the framework and the associated toolkit, composed of AMAT, VISUM and PUNTA.

Abstract
Active travel modelling and appraisal have been receiving increased attention recently from the academia and consultancies alike. This is in part due to sustainability and zero-carbon policy goals in transport, and partly due to the desire to improve the liveability of local neighbourhoods. The tools that are available in the UK for active mode appraisal, however, are fairly limited in scope and granularity. This paper presents a scalable appraisal framework that includes three levels of complexity and a toolkit with three modules: AMAT, VISUM and PUNTA. The objective of the framework is to enable the proportional assessment of walking and cycling schemes and to ensure a balance between the quality of the input data, the granularity of the assessment, and the comprehensiveness of the benefits covered.
AMAT (Active Mode Appraisal Toolkit) is a spreadsheet model developed by the DfT for assessing the benefits and costs of proposed walking and cycling interventions. It is consistent with UK Government policy on appraisal. AMAT quantifies a wide range of potential benefits including health, journey quality and modal shift away from cars. It requires the user to supply input data relating to the scheme, including appraisal period, local area, number of trips before and after implementation, scheme length and proposed infrastructure.
PTV VISUM is a comprehensive strategic modelling software developed by PTV Group. The software is widely used in the UK and elsewhere in the world. Besides highway and public transport modelling capability using various approaches (four-step, tour-based, activity-based models), it also includes a specialised cycling assignment module.
Finally, PUNTA (Processor of Urban Neighbourhood Transport Accessibility) is a tool recently developed by Sweco UK to support the accessibility analytics of walking, cycling and public transport schemes. It offers clients a local browser-based solution to measure accessibility from homes to key commercial and leisure destinations using Sustrans’s point of interest classification. As part of this work, we estimate the value of accessing an additional destination and hence, the increase in cycling trip making due to the availability of trip attractions.
At the first level of the framework, AMAT is used exclusively. Due to the simplicity of the required inputs (i.e. existing and new cycling trips, length of the scheme etc.), the spreadsheet-based model can generate cycling assessment results at low cost. This level is most appropriate for sketch level analysis.
At the second level of the framework, AMAT is combined with VISUM to ensure a more robust modelling of scheme impacts. AMAT assumes the scheme is composed of a single infrastructure type and has a simplistic approach for importing distance travelled. To overcome this, we use VISUM to estimate the impact of the cycle scheme for existing and new / induced demand. The modelling methodology includes an advanced generalised cost formulation and is based on a stochastic assignment algorithm. Trip matrix estimation, validation and forecast follow the TAG-based approach and take advantage of publicly available origin-destination and count data. VISUM inputs bicycle kilometres to AMAT for existing and new trips.
At the third level of the framework, AMAT and VISUM are complemented by PUNTA. This enhancement addresses a further limitation of the AMAT methodology: the lack of benefits arising from unlocking accessible destinations. Without this component, the tool will predict the same number of trips in an area with a homogenous (e.g. residential) land use versus a mixed land use with a wide range of destination types. While this limitation could be overcome by a robust forecasting process (i.e. a rigorous four-stage multi-modal model with a segmented active demand component), by adopting PUNTA we can estimate trips unlocked by attractions within the catchment area of the scheme. The process is benchmarked against observed data. An implicit assumption is that the supporting measures (e.g. cycling storage, school/workplace travel plans) that enable these trips become part of the scheme.
We applied the framework to estimate the benefits of a new cycling scheme proposed for Stoke-on-Trent, UK. We carried out the calculations of the inputs and the benefits at each level of the framework complexity and identified the additional resources required and the accuracy of the appraisal achieved. We also identified the limitations of the approach and the direction of further development and automation.
The proposed hierarchical cycling appraisal framework provides a proportionate and flexible tool for local authorities across the UK for the appraisal of cycling interventions. The framework can efficiently quantify benefits and eliminate the need for costly multi-modal model development.

Programme committee
Planning for Sustainable Land Use and Transport

Topic
Transport planning analysis and models