University of Birmingham: Evaluation of the Binley Cycleway
Background and context
M·E·L Research delivered the final wave of a multi-year evaluation for the Centre for Economics and Obesity at the University of Birmingham, focused on the Binley Cycleway. The work formed part of a programme that started with a baseline survey and then continued through annual tracking waves, enabling year-on-year comparison of attitudes towards and/or usage of the cycleway.
The client’s core need was to understand how effectively the cycleway was supporting cycling uptake and the associated health and wellbeing of the local population. Alongside cycleway awareness, attitudes and behaviour, the survey also gathered a wide set of demographic and health-related measures (including lifestyle choices, quality of life and wellbeing indicators). This introduced a key challenge: collecting sensitive personal information at scale, while maintaining participant confidence and robust data quality. M·E·L addressed this by using a mixed-mode approach that combined self-completion with face-to-face interviewing, described in the technical report as the most appropriate approach given both the large sample requirements and the sensitivity of the health information being collected.
Approach
M·E·L designed and delivered a cross-sectional survey wave using a combination of postal/online self-completion and in-person interviewing, supported by a structured sampling framework and clear participant communications.
Methodologies (distinct components)
Resident survey (stratified random sample, mixed-mode self-completion + tablet-assisted face-to-face)
• Sample & eligibility: A random sample of 20,000 Coventry residential addresses (private households) was selected, stratified by Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) decile and by distance-based buffer zones from the cycleway route. Business addresses were excluded. Only one adult (18+) could take part per household. • Geography / buffers: Buffer zone 1 covered households within one mile of the route; buffer zone 2 covered households one to two miles from the route (excluding buffer 1 to avoid duplicate contact). Each buffer included 10,000 households. • Questionnaire design for comparability: The resident questionnaire was kept consistent to maintain comparability across waves, with the technical report noting only an update to the map to reflect the final stage completion. • Recruitment and fieldwork stages: Two initial mailout approaches were used:
a) Postcard invitation (60% of sampled households): 12,000 households received a postcard inviting online completion via QR code, plus a link to a cover letter explaining the commissioning and delivery partners. b) Full postal survey pack (40% of sampled households): 8,000 households received a cover letter, an 8-page paper questionnaire, and a business reply envelope. Both routes included QR code access to a participant information sheet. c) Booster face-to-face interviewing: After the mailout, M·E·L deployed a field team to conduct 400 face-to-face interviews to boost participation proportionately across all areas, using the original sample list and removing addresses that had already responded or declined (to avoid unnecessary re-contact). d) Workplace survey (open-link online survey with organisations on the route)
• Rationale: A secondary survey strand captured views of workers at organisations along the cycleway corridor, recognising that commuting patterns could be affected even when employees lived outside Coventry. Sample approach: Nine organisations were approached with the survey link (including major local employers and institutions). • Design and access: The workplace survey was kept consistent with previous waves and was shared as an open link. This reduced the need for personal information to access the survey but limited the ability to de-duplicate responses or fully control who completed it.
Encouraging participation (both strands)
M·E·L supported engagement through transparent communications about the value of participation, clear confidentiality information in the cover letter and participant information sheet, a named contact route via a dedicated email address, and an incentive prize draw.
Outputs (processing, datasets, and reporting)
M·E·L’s technical reporting documented the methodology, sampling, data processing and achieved returns, and included the full questionnaire and participant materials as appendices (survey, postcard invite, cover letter, and participant information sheet).
On the data side, M·E·L implemented a structured quality process: sampled households receiving postal packs had unique survey numbers to link responses to buffer zone, sub-sample type and IMD decile; returned paper questionnaires were registered via scanned barcodes and then manually data-entered with at least 5% back-checked using double entry. For online data, survey logic checks and input ranges were built into the programming and mirrored for paper capture; partial completions were assessed and treated as complete if respondents provided answers up to the halfway point, and “end screen but not submitted” cases were treated as complete. The dataset was cleaned and collated, with some responses retained despite invalid IDs to support completeness and comparability across waves, and then sent securely to the University of Birmingham for analysis.
In terms of achieved responses across all channels, M·E·L delivered 996 completed surveys in total: 354 online (36%), 229 postal (23%), 402 face-to-face (40%), and 10 workplace (1%). The project approach also used unique household IDs to prevent duplication across modes (e.g., where someone received a paper pack but completed online, or was later interviewed face-to-face).
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