Considerations, Process, and Practice for Bicycle Planning

Picture for a moment your commute to work, school, or any other destination you make on a regular basis. Chances are, you imagine automobiles moving along a highway, or you see yourself traveling to the bus or subway station to use a form of mass transit. At any rate, you are probably not picturing the use of a bicycle. Yet, in many European and Asian countries this scenario is quite common. Because of our predisposition for the car, planners in the United States continually face the problems of congestion, pollution, and energy-efficiency when examining transportation issues. In spite of this affinity for the car, bicycle use has gained momentum during the past 25 years, creating the need for more bicycle facilities. The following paper chronicles the emerging importance of bicycle planning to create multimodal and intermodal transportation systems and examines several issues that surround the implementation of effective bicycle facilities.