Promoting Non-motorised Transport in Asian Cities

for evaluation of and improvement of existing bike
infrastructure rather than a reflection of how to get nonbicycle
users on the road, or on the relationship between
the spatial pattern of the city and bike use.
The document basically consists of seven groups of
multiple answer questions which give a final score to rate
cyclability in the community (the scale is not specified),
and a set of advice for bike users to improve cyclability.
The main questions posed are:
• Did you have a place to bicycle safely?
• How was the surface that you rode on?
• How were the intersections you rode through?
• Did drivers behave well?
• Was it easy for you to use your bike?
• What did you do to make your ride safer?
• Tell us a little about yourself.
The TravelSmart Toolkit was developed by the Bicycle
Federation of Australia (BFA) for the Australian
Greenhouse Office in the Department of the Environment
and Heritage, with the endorsement of the Australian
Bicycle Council. This cyclability index can be understood
as an improved version of the US Department of
Transportation checklist, being more extensive and
functioning as a guide for cyclability assessment.
The objectives of the toolkit are:
To provide a simple, easy-to-use checklist that identifies
barriers and opportunities to create physical environments
which encourage cycling, and provides further resources
• To allow local government to assess its strengths and
identify areas where improvement can be made to
encourage and promote cycling
• To provide ideas and ‘easy-to-access’ resources for
further information
The resource materials include references, guidelines
and other resources to assist in the implementation of
local cyclability audits and actions. The target audience
comprises four kinds of actors: local government, state
government, developers and community. The TravelSmart
Toolkit consists of two main checklist documents to
evaluate either the cyclability of the local government
area (LGA) or the cyclability of a specific route. Both come
in short and detailed versions.
The LGA checklist is divided into five sections (158 criteria):
• Strategy and Planning
• Level of service
• Comfort and Attractiveness
• Safety
• Environment and Health
The Route Based Checklist is divided into seven sections
(63 criteria):
• Coherence
• Directness
• Comfort and Convenience
• Safety
• Intersections
• Off-Road Paths (if applicable)
• End of trip facilities
This toolkit is very comprehensive and it focuses not only
on infrastructure but also on the governance aspect of
cyclability, such as involvement of the civil society and
budgeting. The guide however does not propose to
include any mapped data analyses to combine these
results with the land use context of the city, so there is a
lack of visual outcome.
University of British Columbia’s Cyclability Index was
developed as a result of an academic exercise. This tool
is not a simple tool but a GIS-based extensive tool which
links the physical environment data analyses and opinion
survey findings. The first phase of the study consisted of
an opinion survey in the Greater Vancouver region. Data
was collected from 2,149 adults from phone interviews
in which origins, destinations and modes of travel per
weekly trips were reported for each individual. Results
from this opinion survey were jointly analyzed with the
built environment and helped identify features of the
built environment associated with a higher likelihood of
cycling, versus driving. The survey also determined which
components are deemed important to cyclists for cyclable
neighbourhoods, and these results were further explored
at focus group discussions that considered each type of
bike user separately (regular cyclists, occasional cyclists
and potential cyclists).
14. http://www.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/pedbimot/bike/cyclability/checklist.htm
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