Growing urban bicycle networks

Cycling is a promising solution to unsustainable urban transport systems. However, prevailing bicycle network development follows a slow and piecewise process, without taking into account the structural complexity of transportation networks. Here the authors explore systematically the topological limitations of urban bicycle network development. For 62 cities the authors study different variations of growing a synthetic bicycle network between an arbitrary set of points routed on the urban street network. The authors find initially decreasing returns on investment until a critical threshold, posing fundamental consequences to sustainable urban planning: cities must invest into bicycle networks with the right growth strategy, and persistently, to surpass a critical mass. The authors also find pronounced overlaps of synthetically grown networks in cities with well-developed existing bicycle networks, showing that the model reflects reality. Growing networks from scratch makes the approach a generally applicable starting point for sustainable urban bicycle network planning with minimal data requirements.

• Record URL:
  • http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-10783-y
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/20452322
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Copyright © 2022 Michael Szell, et al.
• Authors:
  • Szell, Michael
  • Mimar, Sayat
  • Perlman, Tyler
  • Ghoshal, Gourab
  • Sinatra, Roberta
• Publication Date: 2022

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Pagination: 6765
• Serial:
  • Scientific Reports
  • Volume: 12
  • Issue Number: 1
  • Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
  • ISSN: 2045-2322
  • Serial URL: http://www.nature.com/srep/index.html
• Publication flags:

  Open Access (libre)

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bicycling; City planning; Infrastructure; Networks; Sustainable development; Urban areas
• Subject Areas: Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01846266
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 24 2022 10:05AM