Portugal: Viana do Castelo values public space and cycling infrastructure

Viana do Castelo is a municipality in the north of Portugal with a total population of 91 238. A HEAT assessment was carried out by the University of Minho and the National Laboratory for Civil Engineering (LNEC) in collaboration with the City of Viana do Castelo. This was part of the joint WHO/EC project on promoting networking and action on healthy and equitable environments for physical activity (PHAN) which ran from February 2010 to January 2013.

The City had launched a project entitled Come and Go without Polluting to encourage people to use forms of transport that served as alternatives to cars. The aim was to promote walking and cycling through the building of a set of urban routes that promote physical activity and the enjoyment of city spaces.

The HEAT assessment focused on two scenarios:

• Scenario A – Improving Public Space for Pedestrians: This analysed the reconstruction of a street in the historical city centre and its impact on pedestrian volumes.
• Scenario B - Building cycling infrastructure: This examined the potential savings that might be achieved if investment in cycling infrastructure leads to increased volumes of cycling.

Data collection comprised the following steps:

• estimates of walking and cycling volumes based on traffic counts; and
• data collection through the development of a local mobility survey targeting both potential walkers and cyclists. Data included the: origin and destination of trips; average distance and time travelled; number of trips; and identification of key barriers for walking and cycling.

Scenario A found the benefit-cost ratio of the street reconstruction to be 3.5:1, demonstrating that the potential health benefits that may accrue from street reconstruction are much higher than the associated investment costs.

Scenario B modelled the outcomes of implementing the cycling plan for the City of Viana do Castelo, using a 10-year timeframe for the health benefits assessment. The estimate for future usage resulted in benefits of between €95 000 and €1.74 million.

These results have been extensively communicated, including through a paper at a European Transport Conference and a dissemination event at the City of Viana do Castelo.