Planning
Cycle superhighways typically run across municipal borders. It is therefore important to establish a uniform planning approach to ensure that each stretch of a route is implemented coherently throughout the entire route. In The Cycle Superhighway Collaboration, The Vision Plan 2045 functions as the common planning document. The Vision Plan is politically agreed upon in all municipalities in the collaboration.
The Vision Plan 2045 is available in Danish and contains the following information:
- Maps of the complete network of cycle superhighways in the Capital Region of Denmark
- Individual maps of each cycle superhighway
- Description of infrastructure and characteristic along the course of the route
- Estimated construction costs
- Potential assessments
- Time frame for implementation processes
Cycle Superhighway Collaboration in the Capital Region of Denmark
Vision Plan 2045 (Danish)
The Vision Plan is a part of the Danish national urban strategy plan, The Finger Plan, which is a strategic plan for the development of the Capital Region in Denmark and therefore serves as a planning frame and basis for Capital Region of Denmark and all the municipalities within region.
The life of a cycle superhighway
It is a good idea to get acquainted with the efforts that are needed to implement a cycle superhighway before initiating a planning process, to potentially limit unforeseen complications.
The life cycle of a cycle superhighway in the Capital Region of Denmark covers the five focus areas below:
Planning
- Explore possible route designation
- Assess potentials
- Determine plan, principles and standards
- Route screening (if possible also detailed project design ) and cost estimation
- Time frame and funding for construction and maintenance.
- Pre-evaluation of the course of the route.
- Plan for communicate for the upcoming cycle superhighway.
Design and build
- Detailed project design (if it hasn’t been done already)
- Construction project is initiated
- Communicate frequent updates about the construction through relevant channels.
Communication
- Communication plays an important role in all the phases of a cycle superhighway.
- The target groups varies depending on wether the purpose is to ensure a well informed basis for political descision, to involve users, good wayfinding along the route, promote the effects etc.
- It is a good idea to intensify the communication efforts when a cycle superhighway is launched, to attract potential new users and to ensure a broad knowledge on cycle superhighways.
Impact assessment
- A post-evaluation should be performed approxiatemely one year after construction. The methods and data collection in the post-evaluation should be comparable to the pre-evaluation done before the construction.
- A complete evaluation is made based on the pre- and post-evaluation
- Cycle counts are performed once every year to continuously assess the route.
- The results are communicated.
Maintenance and upkeep
- The route is maintained and kept after highest levels of standard.
- The route is physically inspected each year.
- The route is continuously screened for possible upgrades. Depending on the size of an upgrade project, it can require new plans for planning, construction and communication.
- The inspections and ongoing upgrades are processed and discussed on yearly route meetings.
- The ongoing development of the routes is communicated.
Cycle superhighway route designation
There are several elements that can be important to look at when assessing and planning a cycle superhighway. When the specific route for the cycle superhighway is to be assessed and designated, it is important to start from common principles. For the Cycle Superhighways Collaboration the following principles apply for a cycle superhighway route designation:
Principles for route designation
Cycle superhighways are regional connections – and local infrastructure upgrades
Cycle superhighways are the third pillar in Danish regional transport planning. The aim of cycle superhighways is to ensure quality commuter routes across municipal borders. Cycle superhighways often entail an upgrade of the existing local cycling infrastructure, making it both a regional and local upgrade of the general cycling quality.
Cycle superhighways’ primary target group is commuters who commute 5 kilometer or longer
The purpose of cycle superhighways is to support cycling commuter trips – especially trips that exceeds a distance of 5 kilometers. Therefore, cycle superhighways connects residential and work areas and areas with educational facilites across municipal borders.
Cycle superhighways are coherent and recognisable
Cycle superhighways are main regional corridors for cycling commuters. A cycle superhighway should be the most direct connection between residenital, work and educational areas, with consideration to the built environment and local topography. A cycle superhighway should be visble in the local environment, since hidden and dark urban spaces can be experienced as unsafe. By making a cycle superhighway visible and easy accessible you increase the chances of cyclists being seen by other road users, which in turn, increase the feeling of safety. Further, visibility supports a broader knowledge of cycle superhighways as a mobility form.
Cycle superhighways connects to public transport nodes
Cycle superhighways should entail easy access to central regional train stations and bus stops along the route to support multimodal trips between cycle and public transport
Cycle superhighways needs to be politically approved and included in municipal plans
It is important that a planned cycle superhighway is politically approved in all the municipalities the route runs through. It is further important that the route is also included in local municipal plans.
Potential assessment
To select which connections are relevant to upgrade to cycle superhighway standards, the potential of the connections must be assessed. There are different ways to do a potential assessment:
Find more information in the side bar
Mapping of regional activities
Cycle superhighways should connect residential areas, employment areas and educational facilites, across municipal borders. By visualising the different hubs it becomes visible which areas is most relevant to connect with cycle superhighways.
The Cycle Superhighway Collaboration has made an activity map to illustrate concentrations of residential-, employment- and educational areas in the Capital Region.
The map shows how the more than 60 planned and exisiting cycle superhighways connect exactly the different areas in the Capital Region. The data is collected from Danmarks Statistik and is processed by an external constultant.
Bicycle counts
Bicycle counts are a relevant basis for assessing the expected volume of cyclists on a future cycle superhighway. When you know the volume of the exisiting cyclists on a potential route, it can give an indication of the absolute number of cyclists that can be expected to use the route, depending on what percentage increase you expect
The Cycle Superhighway Collaboration estimates the expected percentage increase in cycling traffic, based on experiences from previous comparable cycle superhighways.
Commuter statistics
Lots of different statistics and data are relevant for a potential assessment of a cycle superhighway. For exampel:
- Data on employed citizens commute lenght . This can give an indication of how many people could potentially choose the bicyle as a means of commuting transport.
- Data on intermunicipal commuting patterns, which can help to indicate on how many citizens commute between the municipalities which a planned cycle superhighway passes.
In Denmark you can find data on commuter traffic at Danmarks Statistik.
Traffic models
The effects of larger infrastructure projects can be measured through traffic models. However, it is not all models that comprehends the effects on cycling traffic, specifically. Traffic models can be financially- and time consuming. It is therefore important to reflect on the size of the project, before initiating a traffic assessment using traffic models. An example of an infrastructure project where it would be relevant to measure the effects, could be the build of a cycling bridge.
Socio-economic analysis
A socio-economic analysis functions as an economic potential assessment. In Denmark it is mandatory to analyse the socio-economic effects of all larger state fiananced infrastructure projects.
The Danish Ministry for Transport has created a manual on how to make a socio-economic analysis of largere infrastructure projects. Infrastructure projects are considered a profitable investment, if they have a socio-economic return above 4 %.
Socio-economic analyses of the cycle superhighway network has been performed several times, since the route network has expanded over time, and since transport related costs change. The latest analysis of the effects of the Collaboration’s Vision Plan 2045 was made in 2021, by the Danish Technical University, and show how the socio-economic return is 23 %, which makes it one of Denmark’s most profitable infrastructure projects1Rich, J. Et.al.: Cost-benefit of bicycle infrastructure with e-bikes and cycle superhighways, 2021. Link.
You can read more about the manual for socio-economic analyses in Denmark on the Danish Traffic Ministry’s website [Danish].
Naming and numbering of Cycle superhighways
It is important to provide easy and understandable route information, to ensure that cycle superhighways are recognisable across municipal borders, as well as distinguishable from one another. This is done by providing routes with a name and number.
To ensure furture extension of a cycle superhighway and the enitre network it is a good idea to have general principles. The Cycle Superhighway Collaboration turns to the following set of principles for route naming in the Capital Region:
Route naming principles
Radial route-principle
Routes that connects an outlying city to a larger metropolitan area or a capital:
- Named after the outlying city.
Danish examples: Farumruten. Allerødruten, Frederikssundruten
City to city-principle
Routes that connect two cities that are not a larger metropolitcan area or a capital:
- Named after both endpoint cities, where the western or northernmost city is mentioned before the eastern/southernmost city.
Danish examples: Farum-Allerødruten, Jyllinge-Stenløseruten
Corridor-principle
Routes that run paralell with a traffic corridor:
- Named after the corridor the route follows or runs parallel to.
- Often follows a ring road.
Danish examples: Vestbaneruten (route along a train trail), Ring 4-ruten (route along the ring road Ring 4)
Geographic locality-principle
Routes that run past a recognised geographic locality:
- Named after the specific locality on the route.
Danish examples: Lufthavnsruten (Route to the airport)
Extension-principle
Routes that are an extension to exisiting routes:
- If a route is extended within the same municipality, the route is named after the exisiting route, with an additional stage number.
Danish examples: Frederikssundruten, stage 3 (An extension through Frederikssund city) - If a route’s extension crosses a municipal border, the route is named after the city to city-princple.
Danish example: Farum-Allerødruten is an extension of the Farumruten
Principles for route number
Cycle superhighways in the Capital Region of Denmark are numbered with numbers, similar to other regional Danish routes. Cycle superhighways is however distinguished by having a C in front of the numbers. E.g. C95.
A cycle superhighway is only given a number once the route has recieved the nescessary funding for implementation.
Principles for route numbering
- Radial routes: uneven numbers
- City to city-routes: even numbers.
- Corridor routes: Are assessed accordingly. Often ring routes that are even numbered.
- Geographic locality-routes: Are assessed accordingly.
- Extension routes: Route extensions that become a new route recieves a route number according to the city to city-principle. Extensions that continues a route, keeps the existing route number.
Implementation of cycle superhighways
Screening
Cycle superhighways in the Capital Region is often implemented on existing infrastructure. Therefore the implementation process often entails upgrading existing infrastructure and closing missing links to create a coherent route.
Before starting the implementation of a planned cycle superhighway it is therefore relevant to do a screening of the existing infrastructue and its conditions.
A screening maps out where the route has potentials to be upgraded. The baseline for a cycle superhighway screening is the recommendations and guidelines presented in the Concept for cycle superhighways. A screening is also a tool to get a shared understanding of the completed route for all the municipalites involved.
Find more information in the side bar
Online desktop screening
An online desktop screening is done by assessing and analysing the route, using tools such as Google Maps, Google Street View, or similar. The purpose of an online screening is to give a first indication of the areas on the route that needs of an upgrade.
The Cycle Superhighway Collaboration further assesses the route by using the Collaboration’s assessment tool.
It is also relevant to explore local municipal plans, ownership status, preservation status, larger construction projects, or other elements that can interfere with the implementation, or which requires a special permit to build the cycle superhighway.
Inspection
When a screening report is developed, it is time for the route to be physically inspected by bicycle.
The route is inspected with planners from the different road authorities and is aimed at qualifying the online desktop screening, by assessing the physical environment and the actual cycling experience.
The screening report is adjusted according to the experiences from the inspection.
Estimation of costs
After inspection it is time to estimate the construction costs. The identified missing links and potential upgrades are compared to market prices, to estimate the immediate costs.
As a part of the construction costs it is beneficial to also estimate the expected maintenance costs for each municipality.
Estimation of construction and operation costs
Construction costs can vary a lot due to shifting prices for materials or wages, and in relation to whether it is construction in open areas or in dense areas. Danish municipalities are in charge of their daily operations, and the estimated costs for maintenance therefore varies for the different municipalities.
The Cycle Superhighway Collaboration in the Capital Region of Denmark estimates the construction costs based on a determined group of unit costs, that are adjusted continuously. The overall categories from which the unit costs are estimated, are:
- Separated path
- Cycle path besides road
- Cycle lane besides road
- Cycling route along road with lowered speed limit
- Crossings
- New wearing course
- Signage
- Lighting
- Land acquisition
- Traffic signals
- Roundabouts
- Cost for project planning stage
Municipalities typically operates with a determined factor when estimating the operation costs for new construction projects. It is a good idea to discuss possible expenses for maintenance and operations with the operations department already in the screening and projecting phase.
Estimated construction costs are sent to the municipalities for adjustment. Municipalities adjust the costs based on recent experiences with local construction and operations costs.
Cost evalutions are very general and should be considered a first estimate to get a sense of the financial size of the development project. To get a more accurate price estimate, it is nescessary to develop a more detailed projection of the project.
Funding of cycle superhighway facilities
In Denmark it is the individual municipality or road authority that is responsible for funding the construction of cycle superhighway facilities in their area.
All cycle superhighways in the Capital Region so far has been co-funded by statefunded bicycle pools, or as a part of other larger infrastructure project, such as local urban development or climate securitization development.
The Office for the Cycle Superhighway Collaboration in the Capital Region assists with coordinating the planning and funding of cycle superhighway, by for example assisting the municipalities in applying for different financial State pools.
Cycle Superhighways’ connection to regional public transport hubs
It is relevant to consider a cycle superhighway’s route courses with regional public transport nodes, to strengthen a route’s regional commuter potential. Public transport hubs are also relevant end points for cycle superhighways.
References
- Rich, J. Et.al.: Cost-benefit of bicycle infrastructure with e-bikes and cycle superhighways, 2021. Link
