Building an integrated data ecosystem for cycling in australia: the national cycling data and analytics platform (NCDAP)

• The National Cycling Data and Analytics Platform (NCDAP) was developed to address Australia’s lack of high-quality cycling and behavioural context data. • The NCDAP Transport Attitudes and Behaviours Survey is a standardised, repeatable instrument that allows for comparative studies across cities and over time. • Data from a variety of public and private sources, including datasets generated as part of NCDAP, are made available and discoverable through a new national data-sharing portal, the National Cycling Data Exchange. • The NCDAP Cycling Infrastructure Scenario Builder Tool provides data visualisation and an interactive, map-based infrastructure planning tool, which estimates new cycling behaviours and economic impacts of new cycleway scenarios. • NCDAP provides a unique integrated, open, and scalable evidence base to support research, infrastructure design, policy development, and long-term cycling planning in Australia. Private motor vehicles dominate passenger travel in Australia, driving congestion, pollution, health risks and wider social costs. Cycling is a proven sustainable alternative for many urban trips, offering health, environmental and economic benefits. However, participation remains low – approximately 1% of commute trips nationally in 2016 – and investment in cycling infrastructure remains minimal. Effective promotion depends on detailed behavioural and spatial data supported by robust decision-support tools, but such resources remain scarce and fragmented in Australia. Current datasets are inconsistent in methodology, sporadic in temporal coverage, and often inaccessible due to data sharing barriers, restricting the ability of planners, researchers, and policymakers to assess infrastructure performance, understand cycling behaviour and demand, or rigorously evaluate interventions. This paper introduces the National Cycling Data and Analytics Platform (NCDAP), an integrated framework that addresses these gaps through three interconnected components: (1) a national data portal, built using the industry-standard CKAN framework, that consolidates 79 diverse cycling-related datasets from public and private sources, and (3) a spatial decision-support tool applying a survey-derived behavioural model to predict ridership demand when a hypothetical cycleway is added to the network, and quantify the economic returns on infrastructure investments. The platform was opened to public use in December 2025 at http://www.ncdap.org . By integrating and harmonising previously siloed data sources within a unified analytical framework, NCDAP establishes the first comprehensive, evidence-based foundation for cycling policy, strategic infrastructure planning, and placed-based targeted behaviour change interventions in Australia. The platform offers the basis and new opportunities for comparative analyses across jurisdictions, before and following interventions, allied with data-driven prioritisation of cycling investments to help guide smarter more efficient and effective decision making.