A DEA-centric decision support system for evaluating Ciclovía-Recreativa programs in the Americas

Ciclovía-Recreativa (CR) is a community-based program with health and social benefits including physical activity promotion, social capital development, improvement in the population's quality of life, and reduction of air pollution and street noise. It is critical that these programs are evaluated through their operational performance and efficient use of resources. In this paper, we develop a DEA methodology that measures each CR efficiency relative to its peer programs, compares its performance to a benchmark system, identifies its sources of inefficiencies and offers recommendations for improvement. We examine the proposed methodology on programs in the region of the Americas as a case study and demonstrate the results and the recommendations. Finally, we present a spreadsheet-based DEA-centric Decision Support System (DSS) that facilitates the evaluation of the CR programs. Based on this study, an award called “Bicis de Calidad” (in English “Bikes of Quality”) was created to be granted to the best CR programs reaching full efficiency according to the DEA outcomes.