NCHRP Report 552: Guidelines for Analysis of Investments in Bicycle Facilities

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 552: Guidelines for Analysis of Investments in Bicycle Facilities includes methodologies and tools to estimate the cost of various bicycle facilities and for evaluating their potential value and benefits. The report is designed to help transportation planners integrate bicycle facilities into their overall transportation plans and on a project-by-project basis. This report presents methodologies and tools to estimate the cost of various bicycle facilities and for evaluating their potential value and benefits. The results will help transportation planners make effective decisions on integrating bicycle facilities into their overall transportation plans and on a project-by-project basis. In the past, planners and stakeholders have been faced with considerable challenges in trying to estimate the benefits of bicycle facilities. The authors have developed criteria for identifying benefits that will be useful and effective for urban transportation planning, and they have provided a systematic method to estimate both direct benefits to the users of the facilities and indirect benefits to the community. The research described in the report has been used to develop a set of web-based guidelines available on the Internet at http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/bikecost/ that provide a step-by-step worksheet for estimating costs, demands, and benefits associated with specific facilities under consideration.

Transportation planning and policy efforts at all levels of government aim to increase levels of walking and bicycling. To make the best use of limited transportation funds there is a critical need for better information about two important considerations relating to bicycle facilities. The first of these is the cost of different bicycle investment options. The second is the value of the effects such investments have on bicycle use and mode share, including the resulting environmental, economic, public health, and social benefits. Decisions on transportation projects are typically based on the potential for the project to contribute to broad public policy goals. As such, information on the benefits and costs of bicycle facility projects will help decisionmakers develop modal options and provide travelers with more transportation choices.