An integrated geospatial data model for active travel infrastructure

Active travel has received increased investment and interest in many countries both due to COVID-19 and to policies which promote a shift in mobility behaviours to support a wide range of public and individual goods. However, while there has often been substantial investment in the physical infrastructure that can help facilitate active travel, there has not so far always been commensurate investment in the data infrastructure which can help enable people to shift trips to active modes. Current fragmented data and data models and a lack of data standards pose a barrier to the development of the applications which are needed to support planners, users and journey planning. There is therefore a need for a more integrated, better-connected and more richly attributed active travel geospatial network model. This paper describes the development of such a data model, and its initial application to a case study of Great Britain. It demonstrates how the development, population and maintenance of such a data model could facilitate a range of novel applications, such as the personalisation of active travel journey planning to address different user needs and capabilities. If the potential societal benefits from investment in physical active travel infrastructure are to be fully realised, this needs to be supported by the availability of a robust spatial data infrastructure capable of providing the information required by walkers, wheeled users and cyclists to make effective use of the active travel network.