Revealing the cycling potential of starter cycling cities: Usefulness for planning practice

The potential of cycling to bring about more sustainable travel behaviour has been largely recognised. Regardless of this potential, many cities worldwide still offer poor conditions for cycling and present residual cycling shares. These so called ‘starter cycling cities' are those currently facing the hardest challenges in bringing about cycling. One such challenge is to develop a strategic starting point for the future cycling network. An emerging research field here has focussed on the concept of potential for cycling to provide planning support tools. This paper assesses the experienced usefulness for planning practice of the ‘Potential for Cycling Assessment Method' (Silva et al., 2019) in supporting the planning process of starter cycling cities. Following Planning Support Systems literature on the assessment of usefulness for the planning process, we tested the tool in several experiential workshops involving four Portuguese municipalities falling into the starter cycling category. The Potential for Cycling Assessment Method revealed high usefulness in supporting the planning process regarding cycling policies, particularly with regard to Enthusiasm generated and the Communication value. Revealing the potential for cycling through the spatial visualization of several relevant indicators seems to have had a strong impact on the planning practitioners involved. All of them agree with the ability of the tool to provide support for real world planning decisions, for informing the debate, for identifying areas for cycling infrastructure and for selection of strategies. These findings must be viewed with some reserve considering, in particular, the limited national context.