Cycle Route Analysis : Mediating and Facilitating Participatory Cycle Planning

Sammanfattning: Cycling is recognised as a mode of transport with many health and environmental benefits yet remains relatively underfunded and lacks priority in many Swedish municipalities. Despite a will from the government to enhance sustainable transport, cycling is not given its rightful place in urban areas. This implies a presence of bottlenecks and barriers in cycle planning. Cycle advocacy organisations try to change this paradigm and develop tools, methods, and processes to improve this process. Cycling advocacy Cykelfrämjandet recently released a new process called Cyklisternas Cykelvägsanalys, cyclists’ cycle route analysis. This process can be used by any usual cyclist who will invite decision makers to experience the cycling environment and evaluate it together using a quality assessment method. A report is handed over to the municipality afterwards and a follow up is done one year after.To fully grasp what this new process entails, a thorough document analysis was conducted. Through an international review exploring similar initiatives developed by NGOs, individuals or governmental entities, the degree of innovation this process was assessed. This was then built upon using semi constructed interviews with participants of the three trial Cykelvägsanalys happening in Marks Kommun, Pitea and Varberg. The interview results were also used to evaluate how Cyklisternas Cykelvägsanalys can work on bottlenecks and use action levers to improve the cycling environment. Results show that whilst other methods to assess the quality of cycling environmentsexist, none are tied into a process, or at least nothing of the official kind. This emphasis on the process, the communication that it creates between politicians, planners, and everyday cyclists can help lift bottlenecks related to cycle planning linked to a lack of political support and the weak cycle lobby. In the three municipalities, it seems that CVA has more impact on municipalities that are less advanced on the cycling question. The results are very promising, and the participants on the municipal side willing to act on recommendations issued from the workshop. A big drawback however is the presence of very few politicians in the workshops which is what would have the most impact. A bigger emphasis on the necessity of getting these actors to participate in the methodology would be beneficial. More research can be done in a few years to assess the impact of follow up and if everyday cyclists took the initiative of trying out the method in their municipalities.