The value of dedicated cyclist and pedestrian infrastructure on rural roads

•Findings from a survey of users of rural shared use footpath/cycle path.•Demand estimation for rural shared use walking and cycling infrastructure.•Willingness to pay by pedestrians of 41.0 cents/trip.•Willingness to pay by cyclists of 19.3 cents/trip.•In a case study: dedicated infrastructure is justified for 75% of rural road upgrades.

In contrast to urban areas, very little quantitative work has been done on the demand for rural cycling infrastructure and the willingness of users to pay for such infrastructure. Furthermore there is little evidence on the demand for or value of walking infrastructure in either urban or rural areas. The value of and the propensity to walk or cycle in rural areas is likely to be different from that in urban areas, partly due to the distances involved, but also the different levels of traffic. Using evidence from Ireland this paper presents new evidence on the value of pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure in a rural environment. The models are sensitive to the household's location as well as other demographic factors. Average willingness to pay estimates for users of the facilities are 41.0 cents/trip for walking and 19.3 cents/trip for cycling. These results when applied ex ante to a number of proposed rural road upgrades demonstrate that such infrastructure offers value for money. There remain significant barriers to increased participation in walking and cycling, which makes it difficult to estimate demand and willingness to pay models based on data, which do not reveal peoples' attitudes to walking and cycling (e.g. census data).