DfT EAST (Early Appraisal Sifting Tool)?

[mjr]

Has anyone here seen the DfT EAST (Early Appraisal Sifting Tool) used to assess transport projects? Can anyone tell me whether it handles cycling projects well and what to watch out for, please? Thanks In Advance.

[AndyK]

You can try it out for yourself if you like! Spreadsheet and documentation here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... iness-case
You may need to be a transport strategy professional to make any sense of it though.

[mjr]

Thanks. That's part of why I'm keen to hear experiences or expertise.

[mjr]

Am I right to think that EAST is still pretty much vulnerable to Garbage In = Garbage Out?

So if someone puts in a highly negative score for a cycling project taking people away from buses, but only a weakly positive score for encouraging active travel (which seems bizarre because where else are they saying the bus users are going? Is having a cycle route nearby somehow making them decide to start driving instead?) then it will say that's not a very desirable project.

Or if someone scores it to indicate that opening a cycleway to cars will not discourage active travel but would make better use of infrastructure, then it will say it's a desirable project despite the inputs being clearly male cow poo?

We have some seriously seriously bizarre transport strategy plans arising from what looks like the above abuses of EAST, which I rant about at https://www.klwnbug.co.uk/2019/09/23/kl ... d-bizarre/ with some more detail to come soon.