Global warming and energy conservation have emerged as two important issues all over the world. Building a green transportation system that is environmentally friendly and incorporates the use of bicycles is, therefore, of particular interest to many ...
Global warming and energy conservation have emerged as two important issues all over the world. Building a green transportation system that is environmentally friendly and incorporates the use of bicycles is, therefore, of particular interest to many governments. All levels of government, especially those at the local level, are trying to establish safe and convenient bicycle corridors. The lack of consistent bicycle use in everyday life is one obstacle that they face. Another obstacle is how to evaluate bicycle routes.
There is currently no general evaluation criteria for bicycle routes and bicycle paths. One option is to evaluate quantitative criteria using statistical data. This study researches and classifies some primary considerations when choosing bicycle corridors and routes in order to enhance bicycle transportation. After developing these considerations, pre-evaluation criteria is also developed in order to assess bicycle routes for the purpose of leisure.
The following are three steps that this study takes in order to develop the pre-evaluation criteria for leisure bicycle routes.
First, I review the existing criteria from previous studies related to bicycle routes.
Second, the pre-evaluation criteria are selected through evaluation of previous studies which included problems of existing leisure bike routes and bicycle user surveys. A t-test analysis was conducted to determine the suitability of evaluation criteria. In a brainstorming session, experts discussed the appropriateness of each measure and decided upon final bicycle route pre-evaluation criteria.
Finally, I establish the frame of evaluation through the verification of correlations between evaluation criteria and the apply ANP(Analytic Network Process) method in order to analyze their degree of importance. The pre-assessment of leisure bicycle routes was conducted using the newly established evaluation criteria.
My study found the following:
First, the importance result of detailed evaluation criteria of each superset is, for the safety component, bicycle only roads (0.53255), for the attractiveness component, fascination and interest (0.44519), for the potentiality component, related plans (0.64035), and finally for the accessibility component, connected routes (0.46797).
Second, analysis results of each detailed evaluation criteria show that bicycle only roads (0.111373) is the most important criteria, following this is related plans (0.095934), road continuity (0.091410), connected routes (0.083158), and fascination and interest (0.081602).
Third, we ranked alternative leisure bicycle routes. First is waterfront routes (0.40206), second is city-sightseeing routes (0.36714), and third is downtown routes (0.23080).
The results of this study can regional and local governments decide the priorities of alternative routes through the importance of evaluation criteria when planning bicycle routes. Furthermore, this study can be used to evaluate current bicycle routes and future planned bicycle routes.