Efficient growth strategies for bicycle network expansions

Abstract

It is common practice to investigate the societal welfare performance of infrastructure projects through cost-benefit analysis. In this paper, we introduce a novel reverse geographical mapping approach where the monetary benefits are mapped back to the network. The mapping allows a more detailed geographical planning breakdown and makes it possible to apply a more stringent optimisation approach regarding the timing and prioritising of network expansions. Based on a Greedy-type optimisation heuristic we consider the case of growing a bicycle network in the Copenhagen region over a time horizon of 50 years. Although only considering travel time benefits in this study, the optimisation heuristic renders a net present value that is approximately 2 Billion DKK higher than other strategies, underlining the importance of efficient growth of networks.