Tools to Identify Bicycling Concerns
There are various tools available to help communities assess their existing bicycling conditions and identify concerns or potential issues. Some of these tools can also be used to identify potential alternatives or solutions (such as engineering treatments, policy changes, or education and enforcement measures). Read on for information about:
Audits and Checklists
- Bikeability Checklist
- This easy-to-use checklist gives anyone the ability to evaluate a community's bicycle compatibility, and it provides potential community solutions to problems that may be encountered.
- Systematic Pedestrian and Cyclist Environmental Scan (SPACES)
- SPACES is a comprehensive instrument designed to measure the physical environmental factors that may influence walking and cycling in local neighborhoods. The instrument was developed to be used in combination with additional measures that are gathered through Geographical Information Systems (GIS).
- Cycle Audit and Review
- This short leaflet summarizes a process of evaluating roadways for bicycle compatibility; it includes both design recommendations and questions to drive the process of reviewing current roadways.
- Bicycle Safety Audit Checklist
- The Bicycle Safety Audit Checklist contains an extensive list of possible questions for consideration during a bicycle safety audit of a particular location or route. It contains both general questions and as well as more specific questions relating to roads and paths, such as alignment and cross-section, riding surface, signs, and lighting.
Level-of-Service (LOS) Tools
- Bicycle Level of Service (BLOS)/Bicycle Compatibility Index (BCI) Calculator
- By entering the characteristics of a crossway, this calculator will provide results on the level of service and compatibility of that particular roadway.
- Pedestrian and Bicycle Levels of Service on Roadway Segments
- This study attempts to develop methods for objectively quantifying pedestrian and bicyclist stated satisfaction with road sections between intersections. The results provide a measure of how well urban and rural roads accommodate pedestrian and bicycle travel.
- Real-Time Human Perceptions: Toward a Bicycle Level of Service
- This study develops a bicycle-quality level-of-service (LOS) model that can be used to evaluate US roadways in metropolitan areas. It reveals that pavement-surface conditions and striping of bike lanes play a key role in this LOS.
Other Tools and Models
- Pedestrian and Bicyclist Intersection Safety Indices
- These indices are a set of models that enable users to identify intersection crossings and intersection approach legs that should be the greatest priority for undergoing in-depth pedestrian and bicycle safety assessment. Using observable characteristics of an intersection crossing or approach leg, such as number of lanes, area type, presence of bike lane, type of traffic control, traffic volume, etc., the tool produces a safety index score, with higher scores indicating greater priority for an in-depth safety assessment.
- Bicycle Interaction Hazard Score: A Theoretical Model
- The Interaction Hazard Score (IHS) model incorporates the appropriate exposure variables that describe actual and perceived interaction hazards to bicyclists sharing parallel facilities with motor vehicles.
- Development of the Bicycle Compatibility Index
- The primary objective of the current study was to develop a methodology for deriving a bicycle compatibility index (BCI) that could be used by bicycle coordinators, transportation planners, traffic engineers, and others to evaluate the capability of specific roadways to accommodate both motorists and bicyclists.
- Bicycle Compatibility Index — Implementation Manual
- This manual provides step-by-step guidance in developing and implementing the Bicycle Compatibility Index (BCI), which evaluates roadways on their ability to accommodate both motorists and bicyclists.
- Bicycle Stress Level as a Tool to Evaluate Urban and Suburban Bicycle Compatibility
- This study employs "bicycle stress level" as a method to supply this missing information and thus provide the full range of criteria needed to determine the bicycle compatibility of roadways.
