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Steve Not specifically the causal affect of creating 'short-cuts' but the EPSRC UWAC research investigated the relationship between home location within the city highway network and walking and cycling behaviour across four cities. Basically the results showed that there was a positive but weak correlation for walking and no correlation for cycling (i.e. integrating with our qualitative findings we surmised that existing cycle users cycle regardless of level of connectivity). However, a limitation of our approach (which used Multiple Centrality Assessment to produce centrality indicators and NOT Space Syntax for too complicated reasons to go into here!) was that the approach was unable to measure the quality of connections and of course there's no point in being well connected to the highway network if the roads around your home experience high traffic intensity and poor provision for cycling! We suggest that future studies develop more refined measures of connectivity that takes 'quality of network' on board. You can read more about it in the UWAC summary report (pp8-10 specifically) and I'll keep you updated as and when our other publications on this element of the study emerge. http://www.lec.lancs.ac.uk/research/society_and_environment/cycling/Understanding_Walking_&_Cycling_Report_WEB.pdf Best wishes Tim On 17 October 2012 15:46, Steven Melia <[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 > -- Research Fellow Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development & Department of Planning Faculty of Technology Design and Environment Oxford Brookes University Gipsy Lane Campus Oxford OX3 0BP Tel +44 (0)1865 483436 [log in to unmask] http://www.brookes.ac.uk/about/faculties/tde * Connect with Brookes:* Facebook: www.facebook.com/oxfordbrookes Twitter: www.twitter.com/oxford_brookes YouTube: www.youtube.com/oxfordbrookes E-mag: read the university electronic magazine OBSERVE online at www.brookes.ac.uk/observe EPSRC Understanding Walking and Cycling summary findings now available for download: http://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/items/17bb3ed2-1209-b3e9-5357-614f329af72e/1/ I support @thetimes Cities fit for cycling campaign and their eight point manifesto http://thetim.es/cyclesafety #cyclesafe Quote: "“A society which measures man’s [*sic*] worth in terms of volume of publications accumulated is no less sick than one which measures his worth in terms of dollars amassed” (Stea 1969:1)." Stea D (1969) Positions, purposes, pragmatics: A journal of radical geography. *Antipode *1(1):1–2