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Another short cut has recently been built in York - some 30 years after we began pressing for it, the connection from York Station to the River Ouse path - that might make an interesting survey - polling those using the path. We will shortly have a major restoration of a key route - on maps in the 1700's but seriously compromised in the 1970's when the M8 and other road developments subsumed walking (and cycling) to the car. Connect 2 is due to open in 2013, but a small number of pedestrians do take their chances picking their way through the 'underworld' beneath the motorway, so some survey could be completed. 2 other Glasgow details 1) the revised footway provision at Charing Cross - so few pedestrians did not make the major diversion to use the footway in the sky, and continued to pick their way through at grade that a pedestrian route had to be added as an afterthought, but the crossing point for the exit slip road had no pedestrian priority for the crossing - it took 40 years to get a signalled pedestrian crossing linked in to the delivery of traffic signals. That said the 30mph signs for this stretch of road were demolished and missing for over 2 years , replaced, and within 2 months demolished again, and replaced, and then demolished .. currently these are still missing, and cars can pass through the junction at over 40mph. 2) the provision of pedestrian traffic signals on Finnieston Street, with the major office complex (10 Elliott Place) - having a significant impact and capacity problem with car parking, but a substantial number of the call centre staff especially. It is very telling that despite being practically on top of the station the pedestrian route to the building comes in 'past the bin stores and loading docks', and until the pressure of sheer numbers tipped the balance those on foot took their chances crossing a busy 4-lane road. Both possibly examples of pressure by demand to resolve failure in the road design process Dave H On 19/10/12 21:45, Dave du Feu wrote: > Steve... > > a. I have a vague memory of reading something about research in > relation to the effects of the Millennium bridge in York. Maybe the > city officers or Sustrans would know if research was done into that > very significant new short cut. > > b. There's an amusing anecdote about the health /disbenefits /of > providing cycling shortcuts, as existing cyclists will do a lot less > cycling than previously to reach their destination. See '/Can you > believe it/' on back page of Spokes Bulletin 112 > http://www.spokes.org.uk/wordpress/bulletin/ > > Dave > > > On 17 October 2012 15:46, Steven Melia <[log in to unmask] > <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote: > > Is anyone aware of any specific research into the effect of > creating short-cuts on cycling or walking behaviour? > > I am supervising a dissertation, where the student is planning to > investigate the effects of a new footbridge on a housing estate > which was previously enclosed by high fences. His literature > search hasn't found anything similar, which seems quite surprising. > > I have written about the principle of 'filtered permeability' > based on observations rather than specific research (Melia 2012 > http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/16905/). Many studies, particularly in > North America, have tried to measure the effect of neighbourhood > permeability in general. Most of these are deeply unsatisfying - > usually failing to distinguish between permeability for motor > vehicles and permeability for other modes. > > The only study I have ever found which looks at this in a more > sophisticated way is Franks and Hawkins (2008: > http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2008/cmhc-schl/nh18-23/NH18-23-108-013E.pdf). > > There has been some monitoring of Sustrans' Connect 2 programme, > but I haven't found anything which specifically tries to answer > the question: what difference does it make when you build a > short-cut for cyclists and pedestrians? > > Has anyone come across anything else which might be relevant? > > Best Regards > > > Dr Steve Melia > Senior Lecturer > Centre for Transport & Society > Department of Planning and Architecture > University of the West of England > Coldharbour Lane > Bristol BS16 1QY > 0117 328 3267 > > > > > -- > ** Spokes: spokes.org.uk <http://www.spokes.org.uk/wordpress>; > twitter.com/SpokesLothian <http://twitter.com/SpokesLothian> > ** Personal: twitter.com/DaveduFeu <http://twitter.com/DaveduFeu>; > flickr.com/photos/34847720@N03/sets > <http://www.flickr.com/photos/34847720@N03/sets> > ** Great sites: badscience.net <http://badscience.net>, > 38degrees.org.uk <http://38degrees.org.uk>, copenhagenize.com > <http://copenhagenize.com>, thebikestation.org.uk > <http://thebikestation.org.uk>, ghgonline.org <http://ghgonline.org> >