Evaluating the quality of inter-urban cycleways

•The paper produces a matrix for the evaluation of inter-urban cycleways.•The case study applies this evaluation to a cycleway in Ireland.•The research adds to the body of work producing methods of evaluating cycling infrastructure.

This paper presents the results of research into the development of a decision support tool for use in the route selection stage of inter-urban cycle routes. The study initially focuses upon designing routes for commuter and/or leisure purposes and the differences in the routes required for each user type. The evaluation tool developed was trialled through application to different candidate route options on the Dublin to Mullingar section of the National Cycle Network. A desk study was carried out to develop a list of key design considerations, which was used to inform an initial criteria matrix for the decision support tool. This tool was tested on two candidate route options between Dublin and Mullingar.A survey of experts in the fields of planning, design and cycling promotion was undertaken to identify the relative criteria weightings and tolerance thresholds for each type of cycle route. The results were then integrated into the criteria matrix framework. The candidate route options were reclassified using the new matrix.The results of this paper show that safety is the highest ranked concern when designing a cycle route for either commuters or leisure cyclists. The requirements for each differ thereafter however, resulting in a different order of importance for the criteria headings.