With more and more emphasis on carbon neutral travel, it would be really useful if there was a default 'Cycling' Travel Mode within the Network Analyst extension.
First, just a bit of clarification and explanation: The Network Analyst extension does not provide any "default" travel modes per se. A travel mode is always a configuration of a particular network dataset, a collection of settings to apply that are specific to the data being used for analysis. The available travel modes and the way they behave is exclusively a characteristic of the data and not anything fundamental to Network Analyst itself.
That said, Esri provides some out-of-the-box data to users in the form of our Streetmap Premium product (you can purchase a pre-built network dataset) and in our ArcGIS Online services, which use the same data as Streetmap Premium. This data does not currently include a bicycle travel mode. My guess is your idea comes down to adding a bicycle travel mode to this dataset so you can use it out of the box. Is this a correct interpretation of your question?
A bicycle travel mode should consist of two primary things:
A cost attribute that calculates the travel time along roads and bike paths with a reasonable degree of accuracy
A restriction attribute that defines where bikes are not allowed to travel and, optionally, defines preferred bike routes
Item 1 can be very challenging to estimate because bike speed depends on a lot of factors that are often not included in source data, such as slope and pavement quality. You could assume a constant bike speed for a very rough estimate, but this is unlikely to be very accurate.
Item 2 is generally easier since cities often have this data. I will have to check whether we have any of this information in the data we receive from our data vendors.
Please add more information to your idea about what you're really trying to do and what sort of accuracy you expect in the results. Thanks!
Thank you for replying to my suggestion. I'm new to Network Analyst so I appreciate your thorough explanation.
I'm using the default ArcGIS Online network dataset in ArcGIS Pro.
Yes, I understand Item 1 is quite challenging... I've seen some third party examples where they have taken this into account but I can appreciate this is no easy task. It's also true that slope would affect walking speed / distance.
My idea mainly came from the position of Item 2 - I think this would be really useful. Did you manage to check whether this is something that can be implemented?
Yes, I confirmed a colleague that data we get from our data vendors that we use for our Streetmap Premium product and the ArcGIS Online services does not contain sufficient bicycle-related attribution for us to do either Item 1 or Item 2.
So, Network Analyst is capable of creating cost and restriction attributes for bicycles, but we just don't have the underlying data to create them and provide them to our customers in our data products. Unless the situation with our data vendors changes, there isn't really anything we can do.
I'll leave this idea open because it's definitely something we'd like to support, but it's not something I see us being able to do in the short term.
I understand that your vendors do not provide what you need to reliably make a travel mode for cycling - but what I need is just a crude estimate for personal use in my family.
What parameters would you suggest that I could set in order to generate a crude Cycling Time custom mode?
You didn't specify the ages of the cyclists in your family. That would depend on which set of restrictions to use.
If your family consists of younger children, then most likely the "Walking" restriction attribute is the one you would want to use, since it will only allow traversal on roads open to pedestrians. Note that there are some pedestrian-only passages that prohibit riding a bicycle on it that would not be prohibited by this restriction, so you have to be aware of this. Also note that some major roads may still allow pedestrians to legally walk alongside of them, so you would need to use your best judgment as to using these roads.
If your cycling family consists entirely of teens and adults who know how to navigate a bicycle alongside the flow of vehicular traffic, then most likely the "Driving an Automobile" restriction attribute would be the one to use. Note that you would also want to use the "Avoid Limited Access Roads" restriction and set its usage parameter to "Prohibited" so that you don't route on motorways, expressways, freeways, etc. that are often closed to pedestrians and bicycles.
In either case, you would also want to include the "Avoid Stairways" restriction attribute and set its usage parameter to "Prohibited" so that you don't travel along walking pathways that contain stairs, or roadways whose sidewalks may have stairs.
Other restrictions you may want to also consider using are "Avoid Private Roads", "Avoid Ferries", and "Through Traffic Prohibited", depending on what areas you may or may not have access to entering.
For the impedance attribute, use the "WalkTime" cost attribute, and set the "Walking Speed" to the speed of the slowest cyclist in the group. Note that all roads will use this fixed speed as it does not take into account changes in speed due to slopes, or time waiting to cross through street intersections.
Hopefully this gets you started. Let me know if you have any further questions. Thanks!
I find that the paramaters are a bit counterintuitive - so your suggestions above really helped.
Your explanations are also much appreciated. I understand why this is not something that ArcGIS wants to include itself but I think it is worthwhile to come up with a crude estimate - if for no other reason than to compare with the walking/jogging estimates.
Although it may not be so accurate, I think it is an interesting and worthwhile exercise, and my son who is an avid cyclist appreciates it.
Randal
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