Details

Active Travel England (ATE) has developed a suite of tools to support the development of designs and the assessment of design quality for active travel interventions and schemes.

These scheme review tools should be used in conjunction with ATE design assistance tools.

Route check tool

Helps to assess the design quality of linear schemes, whether they are primarily based on streets or traffic-free paths. The route check tool appraises streets, paths and junctions against a series of metrics relating to the design principles of:

• safety
• accessibility
• comfort
• attractiveness
• directness
• cohesion

It also assesses designs against a series of placemaking metrics. The tool checks designs for 16 safety-related critical issues. These are highway layouts associated with increased collision risks for pedestrians and cyclists.

Area check tool

Helps to assess the design quality of area-based schemes such as local neighbourhood improvement schemes, town centre pedestrianisation projects and city-wide traffic management programmes. The area check tool appraises how safe, easy and pleasant it is to travel to and through an area when walking, wheeling or cycling.

To ensure a holistic view, it also checks the potential impact of schemes on motorists and whether appropriate mitigation is in place for any effects caused by displaced traffic.

Further information on the metrics used in the route check and area check tools will be released in due course, including extra guidance on scoring.

Both tools are based on national guidance such as:

• Cycle infrastructure design LTN 1/20
• Inclusive Mobility: making transport accessible for passengers and pedestrians 
• Manual for streets 2007 and Manual for streets 2010
• existing street assessment tools, such as Cycling Level of Service (appendix A in Cycle Infrastructure Design LTN 1/20 and Healthy Streets
• best practice and further evidence