NetAScore - Network Assessment Score Toolbox for Sustainable Mobility

NetAScore provides a toolset and automated workflow for computing bikeability, walkability and related indicators from publicly available network data sets. Currently, we provide common presets for assessing infrastructure suitability for cycling (bikeability) and walking (walkability). By editing settings files and mode profiles, additional modes or custom preferences can easily be modeled.

For global coverage, we support OpenStreetMap data as input. Additionally, Austrian authoritative data, the 'GIP', can be used if you work on an area of interest within Austria.

For citing NetAScore, please refer to following paper which introduces the software, its objectives, as well as the data and methods used: Werner, C., Wendel, R., Kaziyeva, D., Stutz, P., van der Meer, L., Effertz, L., Zagel, B., & Loidl, M. (2024). NetAScore: An open and extendible software for segment-scale bikeability and walkability. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 0(0). [https://doi.org/10.1177/23998083241293177]. In case you want to refer to a specific version of the software implementation, you may add the respective Zenodo reference doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7695369

Details regarding the bikeability assessment method as well as results of an evaluation study are provided in the following scientific publication, which is openly available via doi.org/10.1016/j.jcmr.2024.100040: Werner, C., van der Meer, L., Kaziyeva, D., Stutz, P., Wendel, R., & Loidl, M. (2024). Bikeability of road segments: An open, adjustable and extendible model. Journal of Cycling and Micromobility Research, 2, 100040.

Details on the walkability index together with results from a large evaluation study are published Open Access: doi.org/10.3390/su17083634: Stutz, P., Kaziyeva, D., Traun, C., Werner, C. & Loidl, M. (2025). Walkability at Street Level: An Indicator-Based Assessment Model. Sustainability, 17(8), 3634.

Examples: You find example output files of NetAScore at doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10886961.

You find more information on NetAScore in the wiki:

• About NetAScore
• Quickstart-guide
• The Workflow
• How to run the Project...
  • ...in a Docker environment
  • ...directly on your Machine (Python)
• Attributes & Indicators
  • Attribute derivation from OSM
  • Attribute derivation from GIP
• Configuration of the Settings
• Contribute to the Project!
• Requirements and Limitations
• Credits and License

How to get started?

To get a better impression of what this toolset and workflow provides, you can quickly start with processing a sample area.

Easy quickstart: ready-made Docker image

The easiest way to get started is running the ready-made Docker image. All you need for this to succeed is a Docker installation, running Docker Desktop and internet connection. Then, follow these two steps:

• download the docker-compose.yml file from the examples ( download the raw file) to an empty directory
• from within this directory, execute the following command from a terminal: docker compose run netascore

Docker will download the NetAScore image and PostgreSQL database image, setup the environment for you and finally execute the workflow for Salzburg, Austria as an example case.

What it does (example case):

NetAScore first loads an area of interest by place name from Overpass Turbo API, then downloads the respective OpenStreetMap data and afterwards imports, processes and exports the final dataset. A new subdirectory named data will be present after successful execution. Within this folder, the assessed network is stored in netascore_salzburg.gpkg. It includes bikeability in columns index_bike_ft and index_bike_tf and walkability in index_walk_ft and index_walk_tf. The extensions ft and tf refer to the direction along an edge: from-to or to-from node. These values represent the assessed suitability of a segment for cycling (bikeability) and walking (walkability).

What the results look like:

Currently, NetAScore does not come with a built-in visualization module. However, you can easily visualize the bikeability and walkability index by loading the resulting geopackage in QGIS. Simply drag and drop the geopackage into a new QGIS project and select the edge layer. Then in layer preferences define a symbology that visualizes one of the computed index values - e.g. index_bike_ft for bikeability (_ft: bikeability in forward-direction of each segment). Please note that from version 1.0 onwards, an index value of 0 refers to unsuitable infrastructure, whereas 1 represents well suited infrastructure.

This is an exemplary visualization of bikeability for Salzburg, Austria:

How to proceed?

Most likely, you want to execute an analysis for a specific area of your interest - please see the instructions in the wiki for how to achieve this with just changing one line in the settings file. If you need more detailled instructions or want to know more about the project, please consolidate the wiki.

Running NetAScore locally (without Docker)

For running NetAScore without Docker you need several software packages and Python libraries installed on your machine. You find all details in the section "How to run the project".

NetAScore uses the following technologies:

• python 3
• PostgreSQL with PostGIS extension
• Docker (optional)
• psql
• ogr2ogr
• osm2pgsql
• raster2pgsql
• several python libraries