Cycle highway: concept and benchmarking

Abstract

Only 8% of the European Union residents use bicycle to commute, being the Netherlands the country with the biggest representativeness in bicycle use for everyday activities. Even if there is no expressive use of bicycles in most European countries, the benefits of this mode of transportation are well known. Starting from the health benefits, as bicycling is considered a physical activity, what lower people’s body fat and decreases the risk of diabetes, hypertension and some kinds of cancers, to the environmental benefits of the bicycle, which are related to the reduction of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. The advent of e-bikes brought more people to use bicycles, especially elderly or people with reduced mobility. This technology also allowed people to travel longer distances, what is a key factor to the implementation of the concept of Cycle Highways. Cycle Highways (CH) were thought to be the bicycle connection between cities when people need to commute to work or study. These infrastructures are longer than 5 km and allow bicyclists to perform higher speeds than the ones practiced in cities. The CH can be placed alongside highways or in totally different sites, but the basis is that bicycles have their own space away from cars and pedestrians to make inter-cities displacements. Besides explaining the concept of Highways, this work also shows where they are present in Europe and how they benefit society through the exercise of Benchmarking.