Our client, Cambridge Ahead, is a business and academic member organisation dedicated to the successful and sustainable growth of Cambridge and its region in the long-term.

The current membership includes some of Cambridge’s most influential organisations with over 50 members representing a working population of approximately 45,000 people in Cambridge. The membership includes two NHS Trusts.

Given all the health advantages of cycling over driving, one might think getting short-distance commuters to make the switch wouldn't be a big ask. Yet for all their efforts to get more commuters on bikes, Cambridge transport planners were stumped: why weren't more commuters swapping steering wheels for handlebars?

Rather than speculating, Cambridge Ahead decided to do what common sense would dictate—ask commuters directly. It partnered with property consulting firm Carter Jonas to create a bespoke questionnaire in ArcGIS Survey123, which combined with an Esri web application, allowed users to not only give their view on cycling infrastructure and attitudes toward cycling, but also record locations on a map to pinpoint the problem areas.

As an Esri partner, the geospatial team at Carter Jonas was ideally placed to combine Survey123 and Esri web maps into a single application as well as organize all the feedback it received. Using the power of ArcGIS Pro, the team helped Cambridge Ahead visualize all the information on maps. This helped planners to quickly see how to build biking lanes that more people would want to use.