Using Bicycle Level of Service to Assess Community-wide Bikeability

This paper introduces a novel method to assess the quality of bicycle travel throughout a community. At the outset, the paper distinguishes between “bicycle suitability” as an assessment of the perceived comfort and safety of a linear section of bikeway and “bikeability” as an assessment of an entire bikeway-network in terms of access to important destinations. The focus of this paper is the latter. A review of the literature reveals that most of the previous work concerning the quality of bicycle travel deals with bicycle suitability, not bikeability. There is, however, ample research concerning the related concept of “accessibility.” The proposed calculation for bikeability builds upon a common accessibility equation and is demonstrated through a case study involving three different capital investment scenarios. Engineers and planners can follow a similar procedure to help prioritize improvement projects or to communicate the benefits of new projects. The analysis uses a geographic information system.