BICYCLE INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY FOR SUBURBAN COMMUTING

摘要

We present a "Bicycle Highway" transportation alternative to automobile commuting by exploring avenues for reducing perceived impediments to bicycle commuting. The three primary goals of the project are: 1) Address the American diabetes and obesity epidemics by making exercising on a daily basis a more desirable and viable alternative. 2) Address the problem of greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants by partially replacing combustion engines with human-powered transportation. 3) Address the problem of the United States' dependence on foreign oil by diminishing energy demand for short-range transportation. The primary variables we will consider are N, the number of people being transported, d, the distance being traveled, C, the energy cost required to travel the distance, and t, the time required to travel the distance. The Bicycle Highway was found to have a poorer throughput rating when only construction costs were considered, but a better throughput rating when vehicle and fuel costs are introduced. The Bicycle Highway offers a timely and economical solution to the numerous side-effects of the century-long success of the gasoline-powered automobile. A transportation corridor that is designated solely for bicyclists, human-electric hybrid and zero-emission vehicles, would allow for a greater volume of commuter traffic with minimal energetic and entropic impact. This proposed roadway promises to make bicycle travel much safer and will alleviate frustration felt by motorists sharing the road with bicycles. We expect cost-effectiveness of our design to be enhanced further if reductions in obesity, asthma, and lung-disease related costs are considered in future case studies.