Cycling Network Discontinuities as Indicators for Performance Evaluation: Case Study in Four Cities

There are several existing evaluation methods for cycling networks, each with its set of indicators, none of which provides a complete picture of the cycling network performance. For example, most studies have relied only on the coverage as an indicator for network performance, while others focused on accessibility. Reviewing existing evaluation methods, it further appears that connectivity or discontinuity indicators have not been systematically identified and are missing from many evaluation methods. Discontinuities can be either intrinsic to the cycling facilities and the cycling network, such as changes in the type of facility or end of facilities, or related to changes in the cycling network environment, in particular the usually adjacent road network and motorized traffic. This paper formalizes the concept of discontinuities in the cycling network and the various causes of discontinuities, proposes a set of indicators to measure cycling network connectivity and the methodology to calculate them, including automated methods for geospatial data with the code available under an open-source licence. The automated method is applied to the comparison of the cycling network connectivity of four North American cities: Montreal and Vancouver in Canada, Portland, and Washington D.C. in the United States.