This is the outline for a proposal for a new kind of elevated cycle way. The sky cycle way is an elevated cycle network which reduces commute time for travel for cyclists. This network turns any city into a flat Amsterdam or Cambridge. We believe this is the lowest cost for installation for any personal rapid transit system.
Within 20 years, reductions in the prevalences of type 2 diabetes, dementia, ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and cancer because of increased physical activity would lead to savings of roughly UK£17 billion (in 2010 prices) for the
NHS, after adjusting for an increased risk of road traffic injuries. Further costs would be averted after 20 years. 17 Billion is a lot of elevated cycle lanes and cycle monorails....
Okay I admit it it's not the full truth. This is the peace Bridge in Calgary in Canada. It does show you what an elevated cycle path could look like. it looks lovely and is very popular.
Technically it's also far too wide ( heavy and expensive ) for a street by cycle system but it does give you a good flavour of what the system could be like.
Traveling to the Netherlands, Bicycling Home | Solutions: We were in search of the “27 percent solution”—the health, environmental, economic, and community benefits gained in a nation where more than a quarter of all daily trips are made on bicycle, according to Patrick Seidler, vice-chairman of the Bikes Belong Foundation, a nonprofit group dedicated to getting more people on bikes more often. Seidler regularly takes public officials on tours of cities where biking is popular. Bikes Belong sponsored our trip, which included half a dozen government officials from the San Francisco Bay Area.
this is a good book if you'd like to know more about the economic cycling and its larger impact on the economy. It's a lot more than economics.
Bikenomics provides a surprising and compelling new perspective on the way we get around and on how we spend our money, as families and as a society. Bicycle transportation is good for a lot of things: it's healthy, it's green, it's quiet, it's fun and it builds community. It also makes financial sense and the magnitude of bicycling's economic impact gets far less attention than it deserves. In Bikenomics, Elly Blue explores the scope of that impact, from personal finance to local economies to the big picture of the national budget.
As you know one of the ideas behind elevated cycle lanes is you don't have to stop at intersections. One idea from Denmark does this at grade with a cycle lane.
Here lights in the road indicate the speed you need to ride at so when you reach the specially timed lights they will be green. Good for cyclists and bad for cars. It's a very cool solution.
Another curious proposal. Naturally it will be quicker and have far more capacity if every tube line was converted into a cycle lane. A dense row of bicycles gives you a huge capacity and given that the bicycles are not stopping the time taken to cycle would be a little bit less than the tube.
All of this proposal's claims are exactly those for elevated cycle lanes. Generally one would never think of building an underground network because of the very high expense of digging tunnels. There is a reason why crossrail is costing in the billions of pounds to dig. All of this goes out the window if the tunnel already exists. I have previously reported on a Spanish underground cycle lane which seem to be fairly successful. So it is rather pleasing to report on a proposal for a cycle lane which Best Conceptual Project at the London Planning awards.
My first response is it would be interesting to see people's path planning given that they have two walk/cycle into a lift and then go down. on the elevated cycle system there is generally a smooth ramp on ( with a tow rope to pull you up) and the smooth ramp off ( which you can freewheel off). I have never seen a proposal for an elevated system with lifts - it seems like an unnecessary interruption to momentum. However given the fact that you can cycle as fast as you like pedestrian Free and without a hint of danger it makes an interesting question.
As always I have issues with cycle lane provision designed clearly by non-cyclist designed around what free Spaces available rather than where cyclists really want to go. However central London is dense enough that this might just work.
