Cycling Research Board Annual Meeting

Cycling plays only a marginal role in everyday mobility in Slovakia, where around 4% of commuters travel by bicycle. Despite favourable conditions for cycling, including a compact urban form, flat terrain, and short travel distances, the city of Trnava has a cycling modal share similar to the national average, reflecting decades of car-centric transport planning characteristic of post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe after 1990. However, in recent years, Trnava has transformed into one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in Slovakia and has emerged as a national leader in implementing a diverse range of cycling infrastructure and intersection designs, many of which remain uncommon or absent in other Slovak cities.
Drawing on Trnava’s role as a living laboratory for pro-cycling measures in Slovakia, this contribution investigates how residents perceive these solutions and what conditions they consider suitable for cycling, offering a strategic roadmap for municipalities at early stages of their cycling transition. A GIS-based additive bikeability index for road segments and intersections is developed in Trnava using expert knowledge, open and municipal data, and a nationwide online survey. The approach moves beyond metrics designed for an undefined average cyclist and instead aims to identify user typologies and produce user-specific bikeability scores. The framework is further extended into a bikeability-based accessibility measure, in which the street network is dynamically pruned according to the requirements of different user groups. Isochrones to key destinations (e.g., the main railway station) are then generated using multiple travel time thresholds derived from local surveys and trip data, which are overlayed with high-resolution population grids. Finally, a short scenario analysis is conducted for a selected destination to estimate potential accessibility gains achieved by upgrading low-bikeability segments with interventions perceived as more conducive to cycling.