Revealing the strength of gross potential for cycling as a planning support for starter cycling cities

Abstract

While the bicycle is at the forefront of the development of sustainable mobility strategies, urban areas often have a different pace of implementation. Those at the earlier stages, identified as starter cycling cities, face numerous obstacles in this process, due to a combination of inexistent know-how, ineffective guidance, and a lack of political and societal commitment. A planning support system especially developed for this context, while simultaneously addressing basic user-friendliness and soundness aspects, can play a key role in the decision-making process, serving as a catalyst for overcoming these barriers.This paper explores the potential of a new PSS, designated Gross Potential for Cycling (GPC), which aims to map the territorial hotspots for potential bicycle use, combining land use and socio-demographic assessment layers. Its suitability to provide a meaningful contribution for practice was tested through a series of experiential workshops involving planning practitioners from a wide range of Portuguese contexts (all in starter cycling areas). Participants were asked to use the insights from the tool in developing cycling strategies and to assess its user friendliness, the soundness of its results and its inherent utility for the planning process. This assessment was complemented by workshops with researchers and bicycle activists.The results demonstrate that the tool was found to be easy to use by most practitioners, while recognizing its methodological soundness, a key aspect for increasing its possibility of future use. Crucial evidence was also found as to its usefulness in several steps of the planning process. Most participants recognised an enhanced level of confidence in the potential for cycling in their municipality after being presented with the results of the tool. The ability of GPC to validate planners’ territorial preconceptions with a sound scientific approach is, perhaps, its most valuable contribution.