Where does the data in the 2021 Walking and Cycling Index reports come from?
Formally known as Bike Life, the 18 Walking and Cycling Index reports for 2021 were produced by Sustrans with the support and co-operation of the authorities named on the front cover of each report. The cities, metropolitan areas and boroughs in the UK and Ireland for 2021 are: Aberdeen, Belfast, Bristol, Cardiff, Dublin Metropolitan Area, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Greater Cambridge, Greater Manchester, Inverness, Liverpool City Region, Perth, Southampton City Region, Stirling, Tower Hamlets, Tyneside, and West Midlands. The term ‘city’ is used as shorthand for all of the types of place.
Data was collated in 2021. Most data applies to 2021. In a minority of cases data is drawn from previous years, where 2021 figures were not available. All reports were published in May 2022.
The data contained in the reports is drawn from a set of common data reviewed and agreed by Sustrans and partner authorities and collected for each of the different cities. There are four categories of data:
Settings data
These are objective measures of the current environment for walking, wheeling and cycling. They include:
- Data supplied by the partner authorities
- supply-side measures of what is available to help someone walk, wheel or cycle in the city. These include, but are not limited to, cycle route lengths, 20mph limits (or 30km/h limits in Dublin Metropolitan Area), cycle parking and newly introduced measures for 2021 such as percentage of junction arms without a pedestrian phase
- Measures of some deterrents such as traffic casualties and cycle theft
- Measures taken from online geographic sources. New for 2021, these analyses include the percentage of households within 800m of everyday amenities, pavement widths alongside roads, pedestrianised streets and neighbourhood housing density. Much of this data is open source. Some is derived from Open Street Map. Open Street Map data has been filtered using the “fclass” attribute which gives a description of the features’ classification type.
Behaviour data
Demand-side measures of residents’ travel behaviours, the types of people who are walking, wheeling and cycling, how often, how far and to which types of destination. This data is collected in the independent representative survey in each city. Behaviour data were collected for all survey participants, not just for those who walk, wheel and cycle.
Attitudes data
attitudes and perceptions of the public towards walking, cycling and transport more generally. This includes types of interventions/facilities/equipment that would encourage respondents to walk, wheel and cycle more; perceptions of existing walking and cycling infrastructure and how to improve them; views on safety and on levels of government spending on different transport modes. Perceptions of the public towards their local neighbourhood was also introduced for 2021. This data is collected in the independent representative survey in each city. Perception data were collected for all survey participants, not just for those who walk, wheel and cycle.
Impact data
Health, economic and environmental benefits from walking, wheeling and cycling, including modelled economic benefits, premature deaths prevented, impacts for the NHS (HSE in Dublin Metropolitan Area) and reductions in pollutants where people walk, wheel, or cycle instead of using cars. This data is calculated by Sustrans’ Research and Monitoring Unit from a combination of the behavioural data and the best available evidence.
More details on where the data comes from
The document linked to below contains a table which shows the data sources and methodologies behind each data point in each city report. The document's appendix has further details on the representative survey delivered in each city and the questionnaire, which can be used to see the exact question wording for data in the reports.
There also is supporting information in the document Appendix, including further details on the representative survey delivered in each city and the questionnaire, which can be used to see the exact question wording for data in the reports.
Walking and Cycling Index 2021 Data sources and methodologies (PDF, 990kb)
