Investment in the development of cycling infrastructure must be placed at the heart of rural development initiatives to address the poor connectivity among rural areas and nearby destinations, such as urban centres.
This paper specifically discusses the case of Sardinia, a largely rural Italian island. The region’s cycle network was developed between 2016 and 2018 by the Sardinian Regional Transport Agency, drawing on the expertise of our research group, within the Interuniversity Centre for Economic Research and Mobility of the University of Cagliari.
There are two primary aims of this study. First, by studying the case of Sardinia, we explore the possibility of increasing the accessibility of rural areas by planning a regional cycle network. Retracing the planning methodology of Sardinia’s cycle network enables us to analyse how this type of network, planned to ease commuting and leisure mobility by cycling, integrated with other means of transport and supported by adequate facilities, can be a valid regional policy to guarantee access to rural areas and stimulate local development through new economic initiatives, such as those related to cycle tourism.
Second, we evaluate the performance of the cycle network of Sardinia by comparing it with that planned in the region of Piedmont, in northern Italy, with the specific aim of understanding whether the methodological approach we adopted achieves a better result.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. In Sect.
1.1 we draw a general framework about the approaches over cycle network planning. In Sect.
2, we describe the Sardinian setting, showing how the regional cycling mobility plan fits into this context (
2.1), and explain the methodology adopted to plan the regional cycle network (
2.2). In Sect.
3, we report the planning results obtained and illustrate the network’s potential to connect rural areas. In Sect.
4, after having drawn a general picture of the Piedmont cycle network, we report the analysis and the results of the comparison. A discussion and key conclusions are presented in Sect.
5.
1.1 Literature review
Over the past 2 decades, the importance of planning cycling infrastructure as a network has been highlighted by both local governments and planning agencies [
32] as well as from the academic field [
2,
17,
27]. For example, Buehler & Dill [
2] reported the correlation between the development of extensive networks of separate bicycle facilities and high cycling levels in countries and cities of Western Europe and North America; the Federal Highway Administration [
12] recognized that only complete, or almost seamless, direct and safe cycle networks create a perception of sufficient comfort and accessibility that will motivate people to use them to access to key destinations or neighbouring communities.
However cycle network planning has traditionally been viewed from an urban design point of view, rather than a rural or regional planning perspective [
1]. On the other hand, it is generally at the regional level that long-distance cycle routes are developed, usually as a part of regional policies like those related to rural development [
3].
Although extensive research has been carried out on the planning of urban cycling networks, the scientific literature on the methodological approach employed to plan regional cycling networks is relatively scarce. Wałdykowski et al
. [
34] pointed out that a systemic approach is rarely considered when planning cycling networks, as they are most often considered as one of the tasks included in the general transport infrastructure development plan, and their construction is seen as a long-term incremental process. Krizek and Roland [
17] studied bike networks in relation to the importance that the discontinuities may have on their use, though they did not propose any method for network planning considering this issue. Mattuone et al
. [
22] suggested the need to refer to the grey literature (design standards, reports, handbooks and guides) published from government offices and civil organizations [
3,
6,
14,
19,
23].
Generally, in the planning of cycle networks, the key elements are identified in nodes and links [
2]. Concerning the identification of the nodes, CROW [
6] establishes that the first step of this process is the selection of the most important origins and destinations, which depend on the size of the study area. The areas of origin are usually the main city centres and residential places, railway stations and other mobility hubs, while the destinations are all those services, activities and structures that can attract cyclists as well as leisure and tourist attractions. The cohesion of the cycling network with the public transport network (railway stations and bus stops) plays an important role [
6]. Cycle tourists often use public transport to get to the starting point and come back from the ending point of a route. Therefore, a regional cycling network should be planned considering the public transport access points, their infrastructure and available connections [
3].
Concerning the definition of the links, Gallagher and Parking [
14] identify two essential stages in the mapping of (1) the existing routes and facilities and (2) the options for the development and improvement of the network, including any additional links that are not part of the routes but that could potentially be used by cycle traffic. In the development of a cycling network CROW [
6] identifies five key requirements that must be met by all links of the network: cohesion, directness, safety, comfort and attractiveness. In selecting the ideal infrastructures for the development of the cycling network, routes along local roads or corridors outside the road network (riverbanks, railways) might be more comfortable and even more direct for some connections. Routes that make use of non-public roads—for example agricultural, forest, industrial or water management—include advantages like low gradients and the limited number of crossings with road network [
3].
In the European panorama, it is possible to trace some interesting examples of cycle routes and networks at national and regional level which have been designed to promote sustainable mobility in rural areas. One of these is the Spanish programme Vías Verdes, which emerged in the nineties with the aim of recovering the disused infrastructure that crossed rural territories (railways, historic roads, canal service roads) and turning it into non-motorized routes. To date, this initiative has recovered more than 2700 km of greenways and turned them into 125 routes across the nation, which have proved to be excellent resources to promote mobility and encourage the creation of local employment and the establishment of the population in rural areas [
20].
Turning to cycling planning at the regional level, one interesting example is the regional cycle network of Western Pomerania (Poland), built in the five years since the adoption of the concept plan in 2014. The network consists of 800 km of high-quality cycle paths, of which 350 km of new, dedicated cycle paths are already open or under construction. This network was developed with an eye to the degree of current development, touristic attractiveness, and need for socioeconomic revitalisation. Most of the network covers existing infrastructure but the construction of new cycle tracks was needed to ensure the routes were high-quality.
Among the key points of this experience, Buczynski [
1] highlights that it is essential to assign the role of leader to a regional administration in order to focus regional priorities and guide local experiences, avoiding fragmentation and benefiting from economies of scale.
Although Italy still lacks a national strategy and action plan, in the last few years an important boost to the development of cycling has been given at the legislative level. First, in 2017, the adoption of Directive No. 375/2017 aimed to put in place a national cycle tourism system consisting of ten tourist cycle routes; then, in 2018, Law no. 2/2018 on the development of cycling mobility was passed. This law promotes the use of bicycles as a means of transport for both daily use and tourist activities and recognizes their importance in improving the territory and its assets. Moreover, it requires all Italian regions to draw up and approve a Regional Cycling Mobility Plan (Art. 5), addressed to the creation of rural cycle routes.
Currently, regional planning for cycling in Italy is a fragmented and ongoing process. Only seven regions (Lombardy, Emilia Romagna, Piedmont, Tuscany, Veneto, and Sardinia) have addressed the issue of regional cycling mobility in either a dedicated plan or within a wider infrastructure and mobility plan. Both types of plan aim to affirm the bicycle as a mobility alternative in urban and extra-urban areas and lay out a regional cycle network. For three regions (Friuli Venezia Giulia, Liguria, and Puglia), the planning process required by the aforementioned law is underway; however, other regions are developing territorial cycle networks without any proper planning tool.
The evidence reviewed here seems to suggest a lack in the scientific literature of a theoretical and consistent methodological approach for the planning of regional cycling networks, as only grey literature’s materials provide general information on the approach to be adopted in planning cycling infrastructures. In this sense, the current work intends to contribute to cycling research by introducing a new planning methodology for cycling networks in rural areas and applying it in the Sardinian context. Based on a reticular approach, the cycle network of Sardinia is defined with a GIS-based multi-stage process that allowed us to identify the main nodes and connections on the regional territory. Through a comprehensive island-wide network, rural areas are connected to each other’s and with the main urban poles, so as to reduce the marginalization of smaller centres and avoid the formation of a few major centres of attraction.
To validate our results, we make a comparison with a different case study of the Italian context, namely Piedmont, chosen among the regions that have already planned a regional cycle network. Although it is not an island and belongs to the more developed context of northern Italy, Piedmont has characteristics similar to Sardinia in terms of geographic extension and the presence of rural areas. This allowed us to make a direct comparison of the performances achieved by each network in increasing the accessibility of these areas.
On the other hand, it is important to stress that its proximity to other Italian regions and European states crossed by cycling routes has represented for Piedmont an important boost in the development of cycling infrastructures. Indeed, the main aim of the first planning process of the regional cycle network was to satisfy the crossing of the itineraries at the transregional and transnational levels.