Search

For cities seeking to promote active transport, overcoming the institutional practices of car-centric planning and investment is critical to redistributing funds toward dedicated walking and cycling infrastructure. Slowly, urban policy and research are expanding traditional mobility-centric economic evaluations beyond major road and rail projects. This review paper of the academic literature employs a systematic quantitative literature review (SQLR) methodology and contributes an up-to-date examination of academic economic evaluations undertaken on large-scale active transport infrastructure implementations (i.e. capital costs greater than USD$3 million as of 2022). Seventeen (17) peer-reviewed academic papers were included in the final analysis. Cost-benefit analysis (CBA), followed by cost-effective analysis (CEA) and health impact assessment (HIA), were the most common pre-implementation (ex ante) and post-implementation (ex post) assessment methods. Between implementation-types, contexts, and methodologies, the parameters factored in econometric evaluations present a large degree of variance. Despite this, all studies demonstrated the positive return on investment in large-scale active transport infrastructure, where all CBAs produced benefit-cost ratios greater than the breakeven threshold (i.e. >1). Results show health parameters contribute the greatest benefit to positive evaluations, accounting for 77% of total benefits (and 67% in the CBA papers). However, evaluations inconsistently factor or omit long-term, intergenerational, and non-mobility benefits that highlight a partiality in their approach and can be co-opted to support predetermined outcomes. Further research must seek to establish if more expansive, sustainability-orientated methods are needed, or whether to adopt policy positions acknowledging the positive returns walking and cycling infrastructure deliver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Policy & Research is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)