DfT’s Active Mode Appraisal Toolkit (AMAT) is a really handy tool for estimating certain benefits for active mode schemes. However, there are pitfalls for the unwary.
One thing to note is the way journey quality (or ambience) benefits from infrastructure enhancements for cyclists are calculated. If you are claiming these benefits, you have to assign the existing and proposed infrastructure to one of the pre-populated categories.
- It’s easy to get mixed-up over what the categories mean – particularly ‘segregated’ which means segregated from general traffic, not segregation between pedestrians and cyclists
- Inevitably there will be sections that don’t really match one of the given categories. But you can use the latter as proxies for the overall level of improvement – the tool uses the difference between DM and DS categories, so you can select a pair of categories that represents roughly the right level of incremental difference.
To make this easier, I have produced this ready-reference chart (326k PDF or 1.4MB PNG) to help with completing the AMAT for cycling schemes. It reproduces the category descriptions and photos from the AMAT User Guide but in an easy-to-compare table form. I’ve also included the valuation figures (to help if you are using categories as proxies) and some hints and tips.
This latest version of the chart is in 2023 prices and values. The previous version, in 2010 prices and values, is also still available (221k PDF or 1MB PNG).
