Understanding bikeability of urban networks
Giulia Reggiani, Delft University of Technology

Giulia Reggiani is ending her PhD in the department of Transport and Planning, Delft University of Technology. Her research in the last 4 years focused on structural properties of bicycle networks worldwide and on data driven methods for assessing bikeability. Her current interests lie in the broad domains of smart mobility, data analysis, and sustainability.

Having a bicycle network that is fully separated from vehicular traffic is not realistic even for top-performing cities. Thus, cycling in most countries entails switching between streets with different length, safety, and comfort levels. As a consequence, the quality of bicycle networks should not be evaluated based on one but multiple factors and by considering the different preferences of the users between the factors.In this presentation I will define and analyse different types of bicycle networks and present findings on bicycle infrastructure development across 47 cities. Then, I present a multi-objective methodology to assess bikeability per origin-destination (OD) pair and for the entire network, useful for evaluation and planning of bicycle networks. I do so by introducing the concept of “bikeability curves” which allows to assess how bikeable a network is for for its heterogeneity of users. This methodology is showcased on two cities with different bike cultures: Amsterdam and Melbourne.