Cycling Planning in Small-Sized Brazilian Cities Based on Open Data Geoprocessing

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to propose a method to systematize cycling planning in small-sized Brazilian cities based on open data, such as census data, collaborative mappings, and Digital Elevation Models, seeking to assist in the elaboration of municipal urban mobility plans, and that can be adapted to other countries with similar characteristics and that have equivalent information. The proposed method is summarized in four steps: geoprocessing of open spatial data, which allows the georeferencing of potential cycling demand and cycling trip generator poles, as well as updated representations of road systems; definition of the subsets of origins and destinations of the cycling routes to be identified using Dijkstra’s algorithm, in order to minimize the overall cost associated with the road segments' operational quality for cycling; impedance assignment to road segments based on their average slopes and cycling Levels of Traffic Stress; and assessment of these road segments’ proportions in the identified cycling routes (Cycling Potential Index). Examples of the proposed method’s application were carried out in two Brazilian cities, Bariri-SP and Bocaina-SP, through which it was possible to define, for both cities, continuous and interconnected cycling axles, accessible to most of the study areas’ potential cyclists. Therefore, despite the obvious importance of conducting specific research and field surveys in each Brazilian city for greater reliability of the results, the proposed method can contribute to the popularization of cycling in utilitarian trips and to the strengthening of the “bicycle culture” still in force in small-sized Brazilian cities.