Design of bicycling suitability maps for hilly cities

Abstract

Sustainability worries related to the intensive use of energy by automobiles and traffic congestion issues have encouraged decision makers to look for alternative solutions, leading to an emerging shift towards soft/active transport modes. The bicycle, a very efficient mode of transport, is a soft travel mode that can be adopted in most cities, contributing to urban sustainability given the associated environmental, economic and social advantages.Cycling, however, also has its deterrents. Among these, it is recognised that slopes play an important role in influencing the choice for this mode of travel. The purpose of this paper is to present methods to analyse a hilly city's suitability for cycling, in what concerns relief, with the aim of identifying locations for implementation of hard aid devices that restore connectivity between most parts, or even the whole, of the city. The methodology proposed makes use of appropriate service areas. Geographical information systems technology was used to implement the methodology and the approach is demonstrated with a case study for the city of Coimbra, Portugal. This combined approach helps decision makers to plan the city in a sustainable way.

Impact of E-Bikes on Cycling in Hilly Areas: Participants’ Experience of Electrically-Assisted Cycling in a UK Study

“…For example, Parkin et al found hilliness to be "a very significant indicator of the proportion that cycle to work", confirming "the powerful effect of hilliness found by Waldman (1977)" [17] (p. 103) (Waldmann is out of print). The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (Aashto) regards "slopes (or grades) greater than 5%" as "undesirable because climbing the ascents is difficult for many cyclists" as summarized by Tralhao et al [18]. Broach et al's Oregonbased study of cyclists found that "slopes above 2%" were "one of the most important influential attributes" in their model and that "cyclists go significant distances to avoid such hills" [19] (p. 1739).…”

The Legibility and Permeability of Cities: Examining the Role of Spatial Data and Metrics

“…A given network area is considered very permeable to cycling if it allows to connect any two of its nodes, back and forth [35]. Bentley et al (1985) studied the notion of permeability in an urban environment and suggested three design trends that should positively influence the layout of cities and then physical and visual permeability [10].…”

“…This neighbourhood is well known locally as it is a crowded area of Tehran's bazaar and contains a relative diversity of human activities and land uses. The experimental evaluation of our research has been conducted with a study area related to a neighbourhood, located in the central part of Tehran, and that covers an area of about 3 km 2 ( Figure 3) [35]. This neighbourhood is well known locally as it is a crowded area of Tehran's bazaar and contains a relative diversity of human activities and land uses.…”

A Planning Practice Method to Assess the Potential for Cycling and to Design a Bicycle Network in a Starter Cycling City in Portugal

“…Attributes have mostly been evaluated through spatial analysis, by using GIS and multicriteria tools. This includes, for example, the study of Tralhão et al [35] for designing cycling suitability maps for hilly cities, the research of Terh and Cao [13] for planning cycling lanes and the study of Saplıo glua and Aydınb [31] for choosing safe and suitable bicycle routes. In the second case, bikeability is estimated through indexes, which are composite measures of various built environment attributes [34,36].…”

“…There is evidence that people prefer to cycle in flat areas [12,41]. Slopes (uphill gradient) between 0% and 3% are considered and evaluated as the most suitable [49], while slopes above 5% are not recommended for cycling [8,35]. Thus, the type of pavement, the quality of pavement, slopes, cars parked on streets and the presence of curbs are some of the most used attributes to describe comfort.…”