Cyclists' assessments of road and traffic conditions : the development of a cyclability index. Prepared for the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions DETR, STP Division.

This project examined the factors that determine how suitable a road is for cycling (its level of service for cycling, here termed `cyclability'). Using a specially equipped instrumented bicycle, 51 cyclists road a 9.2km route and made subjective assessments of the `cyclability' of its 11 links. The authors then tried to explain the subjective scores in terms of objective road and traffic data. These included road width, surface quality, traffic flow and speed, passing distance, gradient, `lateral conflict', effort and aesthetics. This approach has potential applications in the field of cycle route planning as it can provide engineers with reassurance that certain types of conditions are likely to be deemed satisfactory by the majority of cyclists. (Author/publisher).