Cycling news in Brisbane — Briscycle

If you want to add a big cycle lane for a packed city think about the water. 

This aquatic water way in Brisbane  isn't elevated but it is a seperate. I think it's pretty cool and a good example of what can be done. Personally it would be better covered/shelterd. It would be good to have narrow lanes in London's quite canals. 

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Cycling news in Brisbane — Briscycle

SLEADD AvatarOne and EcoFlyer Promo

Cool I wish it was as fast as Shweeb. There is a huge logic to run a system on a wire (so called mono-wire systems ) the visual intrusion is at an absolute minimum. This is obviously designed for tourism, but  there is no reason in principle not to run it down a city street (with an enclosed pod).

The Velomobile as a Vehicle for more Sustainable Transportation

Follow the think to a Masters thesis on velomobiles ( coverd bikes ) .

http://users.telenet.be/fietser/fotos/VM4SD-FVDWsm.pdf

Full a cool information.

Green wave for bicylists

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. 

LOW-TECH MAGAZINE: The velomobile: high-tech bike or low-tech car?

LOW-TECH MAGAZINE: The velomobile: high-tech bike or low-tech car?:

'Nevertheless, thanks to the recumbent position, the minimal weight and the outstanding aerodynamics, pedalling a "velomobile" requires three to four times less energy than pedalling a normal bicycle.

This higher energy efficiency can be converted felt in terms of comfort, but can also be utilised to attain higher speeds and longer distances - regular cyclists can easily maintain a cruising speed of 40 km/h (25 mph) or more. The velomobile thus becomes an excellent alternative to the automobile for medium distances, especially in bad weather.'



I could believe this but a factor of 4 sounds quite impressive. I know the HPV competition on Battle Mountain use velomobiles and get in to the 70mph region so I guess it's not out of the question. The principle reason against them is the extra weight stopping/starting ( in traffic). If true a dedicated network could be vital to run over long distances.


Good artical worth a read.

Elevated bike lane opens in Copenhagen | Urban Gateway

Elevated bike lane opens in Copenhagen | Urban Gateway

Lovely... check it out.

STUDENT PROJECT | Genoa Green Infrastructure | Alessandro Vino World Landscape Architecture – landscape architecture webzine

STUDENT PROJECT | Genoa Green Infrastructure | Alessandro Vino � World Landscape Architecture – landscape architecture webzine

This is an amazing cycle path in Holland. No wonder so many of them use a bike. - Imgur

This is an amazing cycle path in Holland. No wonder so many of them use a bike. - Imgur

Underground bike lanes.

San Sebastian inaugurated the world's longest bicycle commuter tunnel in 2009. Basically its a converted train tunnel. 

but it looks quite cool and makes you wonder what it would be like to be able to cycle for long (ish) distances in the dry at speed ( not intersections ) and in the cool ( good for spain)  

This link http://www.diariovasco.com/videos/gipuzkoa/actualidad-de-gipuzkoa/690890454001-tunel-morlans-amara-ibaeta-bicicleta.html

lets you see a spanish TV report. Looks quite nice - I'd love to try it out. 

Naturally digging a tunnel is the most expensive way of getting road space but if its available then why not use it. Does make you wonder about the carrying capacity of this tunnel with bikes vs the same thing with trains. 

Sustrans talk about one in the UK - another abandoned Rail system. 

http://www.sustrans.org.uk/what-we-do/connect2/schemes/south-west/bath-two-tunnels?id=2

cool scheme video

This has just gone up on you tube very nice. 



quote
'This concept is a copy of the one presented by the Architect Richard Moreta with office in Berlin and Miami, Florida. He introduced the concept of a highway for bikes in the early 2002 and lately has been refined the concept and presented to a diversities of city to be implement in the states , Europe and South America. See the video'

very nice, we need more slick videos like this.

Trondheim - so cool

One of the things that I believe a good elevated system needs is the ability to increase flow in areas of high gradient. This could be getting people on to the system, or dealing with the worst hills.
This system from Norway shows how it cold be done.

Even without an elevated system we need to see many more of these Trondheim like systems all over ( I could think of five places near me that could do with one).

The mighty Biketrans or transglide 2000

The Transglide system goes all the way back to 1997 (possibly earlier I'm not sure). I love the drawings of the system wonderful, this is elevated cycle ways as they should be. I think Milnor has got all the right ideas, elevated (naturally), stations, bikes don't have to have as structurally over designed as pedestrian or car ways,  but the clever stuff to notice is

• Separate up/down sections so you can push the air to encourage faster flow by lowering air resistance(1).  
• this means you can travel much further much faster
• Optionally charge a toll per trip ( you have on/off stations so you can do this).
•  This could make the system financially self supporting. 

I remember someone once critiqued that pumping air down was a energetically too expensive and I wrote back defending the Transglide pointing out that this was putting as much energy in as running a bus ( i.e. its still better than a car). This made me realise that in strong winds cyclists are putting in as much energy as a bus - which seems a bit much to ask, why not protect them from strong winds?

Still I'm getting off the point, Check out the transglide system it's cool.

shweeb technology

I like the Shweeb system a lot, why ? Well firstly they have built one which says a lot.


The big advantage of this kind of system is that the monorail is very very minimal hardly any visible intrusion which is a big objection with a monorail concept. This should have the lowest unit capital cost of any PRT (or road ) system which is a big plus for 
 Also a cycle lane has the reputation of being quite. 




I do like this system and wish it all the best.


I think the elevated cycle lane concept does have the advantage that by cycling to the nearest station you get a much larger what they call service radius ( area serviced from the station ).
That said the Aeorider concept originally had attachments to the bike which let you join the monorail at stations ( technically making it dual mode but who's fussing) so getting the best of both worlds.
Also with the elevated cycle lanes you don't have to have a guy who can move empties from destination stations to source stations. 
To explain in a rush hour everyone wants to go from A to B so you need to move empty ones from B to A. In PRT this happens automatically, with a cycle lane system unless your doing a tour (round trip ) you end up with lots of pods left at B. So either you provide lots of parking ( the car solution ) or shift empty machines back. This isn't a big problem you just have some caretakers who can pull a small train of empty pods back. 


Any way enough fussing, GO Shweeb!