This short article is part of our '20 high impact research stories' series. This has been assembled to mark two decades of the City Futures Research Centre 2005-2025. Each of the 20 stories revisits an influential research study completed over those 20 years, linking it with related Centre projects and outcomes. A brochure version of all 20 stories will be published later in 2025.

Despite recognition of the social, physical and economic value of cycling for transport, Australia has seen a decline in participation in recent decades. Most Australian states devote  less than 2% of transport infrastructure funding to cycling, so new cycling infrastructure must be highly carefully planned to be cost efficient and fit for purpose. CFRC has led several innovative, data-driven projects aimed at supporting better decision-making in cycling infrastructure planning. These projects provide critical tools to identify where new cycling infrastructure is needed, and what types of cycling infrastructure are safe and appealing to cyclists of all ages and abilities.  

Led by Prof Chris Pettit, and also involving Dr Lee Roberts, Dr Balamurugan Soundararaj, and others, our 2021-23 Cycling Infrastructure Scenario Builder project created a web-based interactive decision-support tool that empowers planners to visualise, test, and evaluate different cycling infrastructure scenarios. Funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) and developed in partnership with government and industry, the tool uses a discrete choice model to calibrate how hypothetical cycling infrastructure enhancements would impact user participation. The tool has been trialled in greater Sydney and the Illawarra region with project partners – Transport for NSW, Penrith and Wollongong City Councils, and NSW Office of Sport. 

The platform integrates layers of spatial data on existing infrastructure, cycling attitudes and behaviours, crash risks, and land use, enabling government and stakeholders to prioritise investments based on safety, health, and economic outcomes. Its streamlined batch-processing capabilities have helped speed up scenario testing across Greater Sydney, supporting smarter, faster decision-making in line with local and state transport strategies. Transport for NSW commented about the project: 

"[The tool] allowed us to see more clearly what challenges councils face when planning cycleways. It increased our awareness of the economic, physical and political processes and constraints for building cycleways."

A council partner noted: 

"The tool helps answer a real question that councils face on where scarce cycling resources should be spent most efficiently."

Building on this work, CFRC is now lead partner in the National Cycling Data and Analytics Platform (NCDAP) (2024), funded through ARC LIEF and supported by five universities and six national cycling advocacy and urban data organisations. This project aims to create a centralised platform for integrating cycling-related data across Australia. By linking existing datasets with a new national survey on cycling attitudes and behaviours, the platform will enable the creation of map-based dashboards that visualise current usage patterns and predict impacts of proposed infrastructure, using modelling led by Dr Maryam Bostanara. This will provide planners, researchers, and policymakers with tools to address cycling network gaps, understand future needs, and support infrastructure investment cases with real-time, evidence-based analytics. 

In parallel, CFRC's project Safer cycling and street design: A guide for policymakers (2024), led by Dr Mike Harris, directly responds to the 48% of NSW residents who are ‘interested but concerned’ about cycling due to safety anxieties. In partnership with UNSW rCITI and Transport for NSW, with funding from iMOVE CRC, the project conducted a literature review, developed a design tool for local street-level infrastructure planning, and tested perceptions of safety through virtual reality experiments. The findings demonstrate the potential of protected cycle paths and controlled intersections in encouraging uptake among cautious riders. As Transport for NSW noted: 

"The findings from this study underscore the role dedicated cycling infrastructure plays in attracting the ‘Interested but Concerned’ cohort... The study outcomes emphasise the importance of investing in and prioritising cycling infrastructure to foster bicycling as an attractive and viable mode of transport."

CFRC’s research on this topic has been underpinned by powerful visualisation tools. Using 122,000 GPS-tracked cycling journeys from over 8,000 cyclists, the Centre created dynamic maps of bicycle movement in major Australian cities, offering planners unprecedented insights into cycling patterns on a typical weekday. 

Together, these projects illustrate how data-driven approaches can transform urban mobility, and enable evidence-based planning that leads to safer, more enjoyable and more cost-effective, cycling infrastructure across Australian cities.