Robust design of bicycle infrastructure networks

Promoting active mobility like cycling relies on the availability of well-connected, high-quality bicycle networks. However, expanding these networks over an extended planning horizon presents one of the most complex challenges in transport science. This complexity arises from the intricate interactions between infrastructure availability and usage, such as network spillover effects and mode choice substitutions. In this paper, we approach the problem from two perspectives: direct optimization methods, which generate near-optimal solutions using operations research techniques, and conceptual heuristics, which offer intuitive and scalable algorithms grounded in network science. Specifically, we compare direct welfare optimization with an inverse network percolation approach to planning cycle superhighway extensions in Copenhagen. Interestingly, while the more complex optimization models yield better overall welfare results, the improvements over simpler methods are small. More importantly, we demonstrate that the increased complexity of planning approaches generally makes them more vulnerable to input uncertainty, reflecting the bias-variance tradeoff. This issue is particularly relevant in the context of long-term planning, where conditions change during the implementation of the planned infrastructure expansions. Therefore, while planning bicycle infrastructure is important and renders exceptionally high benefit-cost ratios, considerations of robustness and ease of implementation may justify the use of more straightforward network-based methods.