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A Survey into Active Travel in Falmouth, UK
A short report summarizing results from our survey into cycling infrastructure as part of the Global University Climate Forum.
Introduction
Active travel is an essential part of shifting to a zero carbon way of life and economy. However, route safety has been identified as a major barrier to growth. Our project proposed a citizen-led approach that collates experiential data from active travellers (e.g. testimony, photo, video,) to document and map local danger hotspots in Falmouth (Cornwall). By emphasising human experience, our project has tackled a gap in current processes for local infrastructure investment and has also helped champion the benefits of safe active travel. The developed methodology has been described below for use in other locales.
Our vision was to prototype a citizen-led public engagement tool that supports Local Authorities to make effective investments in active travel. The project has engaged with diverse community members to gather inclusive data documenting local danger hotspots for walking and cycling. The data gathered has been converted into an interactive map linked to experiential inputs such as real-life photos. The purpose of this report is to communicate results to participants and the wider community. Results will also be presented to Cornwall Council and relevant local investors to explore potential uses in further active travel development.
The project's intended outcome was to provide human-centric data to direct active travel investment to where it can provide the greatest value and benefit for local people, in line with ambitions to achieve net zero by 2030. A secondary outcome has produced a toolkit to enable project replication in other locales.
Methods
Data collection took place via an online survey. Users had the ability to answer single and multiple choice questions, provide comments, and populate a GIS map with geographic data of critical infrastructure. We used local networks (e.g. University of Exeter, Parish Councillors, interest groups) and social media to recruit participants. Our aim was to represent people using active travel for a range of purposes (e.g. commuting, shopping trips) and to ensure maximum demographic diversity.
The main purpose of the survey was to gather insights into current cycling infrastructure in Falmouth as well as propensity to cycling if infrastructure was to be improved. Questions included:
- Demographics (age, health, fitness level, residency) and primary transport mode (bicycle, e-bike, bus, car, motorcycle, train, van, walking)
- How they would rank current cycling infrastructure (from highly inadequate to excellent)
- How they would feel about further development of cycling infrastructure (from strongly oppose to strongly support)
- Presence of general issues (i.e. air pollution, not enough public transport, road safety, traffic congestion, other)
- Likelihood to cycle using current infrastructure (from very unlikely to very likely)
- Suggestions for improvement of the current cycling infrastructure (e.g. bike parking, dedicated cycle lanes, nothing, public cycle hire scheme, reduce traffic speed, other)
- Likelihood to cycle using improved infrastructure (from very unlikely to very likely)
- What cycling infrastructure they support from the perspective of a motorist, cyclist and pedestrian
Respondents also had the opportunity to upload photos showcasing critical infrastructure and to drop pins on a GIS map where they were prompted to select whether they supported or did not support the infrastructure, the type of infrastructure and had the possibility to provide more information.
Results & Interactive Map
The survey was open for a period of 1 month, during which we received over 200 entries in the questionnaire and almost 150 entries on the GIS map.
Respondents were from a broad spectrum of age groups and fitness levels, with 38% of respondents carrying out more than 120 minutes of moderate-vigorous activity in a typical week. Moderate-vigorous activity was defined as activity that will raise your heart rate, and make you breathe faster and feel warmer. One way to tell if you're working at a moderate intensity level is if you can still talk, but not sing (NHS). The vast majority of respondents were resident to the area (67%), with the remaining including people who travel for work (20%), for education (4%) or for other purposes such as family/care and shopping.
50% of respondents deemed the current cycling infrastructure inadequate, with a further 26% deeming it highly inadequate (Fig. 1, top-left panel).
The vast majority of respondents would strongly support (75%) or support (13%) the development of cycling infrastructure in Falmouth. Road safety (39%), traffic congestion (25%) and not enough public transport (15%) are identified as the greatest issues present in Falmouth and Penryn. The Other category includes factors such as weather (rain), quality of paved surfaces, parking of cars on pavements, limited number of cycle lanes, steep gradients and the lack of illumination/safety concerns at night.
Currently, the main mode of transport of respondents is by car (31%) and on foot (30%), with 17% cycling. With cycling infrastructure as is, likelihood to cycle is approximately 40%. Should changes to the current cycling infrastructure take place in the future, up to 84% of respondents would be very likely or likely to cycle. The bottom right pane of Fig. 1 summarizes key suggestions for improvement to the current cycling infrastructure. These mainly include dedicated cycle lanes (40%) and bike parking (20%).
Figure 1. Summary of main survey results on current cycling infrastructure in Falmouth.
Respondents also provided considerable amounts of information on current cycling infrastructure that they support or oppose from the perspective of a motorist, cyclist and pedestrian. This information has been passed on to Cornwall Council for future use.
Finally, geospatial data was collected on a map using ArcGIS Online; results are presented in the interactive dashboard below (Fig. 2). Blue pins show infrastructure that is supported by respondents, while red pins represent infrastructure that is not supported. By clicking on a pin, more information will be displayed.
Figure 2. Dashboard showing survey results from users who indicated the location of cycling infrastructure they support (blue pins) or oppose (red pin), as well as the type of infrastructure they support or oppose. Click on the pins on the map to find out more about cycling infrastructure in this area.
In summary
The results of our short survey have demonstrated that the local community would support the development of cycling infrastructure in Falmouth, and would embrace cycling as their main mode of transport should infrastructure be improved. Though localised to a small town in Cornwall, our survey has highlighted the importance of public consultation in order to promote active travel in the future.
It is advised that a similar platform is implemented by local councils in the UK to gather insights into cycling infrastructure. This should not be limited to stakeholder engagement prior to planning, but rather an ongoing effort to promote active travel. Due to time constraints, the survey developed for the purpose of this project was only open to entries for a limited time period and focused on cycling only. It is suggested that other forms of active travel are included in the future such as walking.