From Equitable Access to Equitable Usage: Moving towards Data-driven, Evidence-based Cycling Assets Management

Authors

• Kewei Ren, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Yunping Liang, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
• Chun-Hsing Ho, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2025

Citation

Joint CSCE Construction Specialty Conference / ASCE CRC, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, July 28-31, 2025

doi: 10.22260/CRC-CSCE-2025/0170

Comments

Copyright 2025, the authors. Used by permission

Abstract

Cycling is increasingly recognized for its wide range economic, environmental, and health benefits as a mobility option. However, disparities in the provision and the quality of bicycle infrastructure persists. Ensuring fair access and usage of these benefits for all presents a significant challenge. As a result, establishing effective methodologies to evaluate cycling equity is critically important. This paper synthesizes research on infrastructure asset management with a focus on equity considerations in bicycle infrastructure. A systematic review of 19 North American studies critically examines how existing research categorizes vulnerable populations and assesses fairness. The results reveal that most existing analyses focus on equitable access – that is, facility coverage, distribution, and basic reachability – while largely overlooking aspects of equitable usage, such as infrastructure quality, connectivity, quantitative user-experience metrics, and real-world facility utilization across different socioeconomic groups. Moreover, factors like car dependency and road conditions are seldom integrated into equity discussions, leading to incomplete assessments of how well cycling infrastructure serves diverse users. While geospatial analyses, GIS-based modeling, and smartphone-based sensing have started to offer new methods for assessing the cycling experience by identifying pavement distress and evaluating cyclists’ comfort, these approaches have not been fully adopted as equity-focused metrics. Instead, current assessments often rely on subjective feedback or user perceptions, which fall short of providing data-driven, evidence-based decision support for maintenance based on actual comfort measurements. To address these gaps, we propose a data-drive evaluation approach that consider not just access, but also usage, safety, and comfort.