Defining an Urban Bicycle Transportation System for Minnesota Cities

Abstract

A review of the literature on bicycle transportation shows there have been many studies and publications that present good arguments as to why we should foster the use of the bicycle as a mode of utilitarian transportation. However, this literature tells us little to help understand how to implement a bicycle transportation system in an orderly and systematic way. The intention of this study was to identify a systematic way by which use of the bicycle as utilitarian transportation in Minnesota cities could be increased. History suggests that a conceptual construct of a roadway system that not only merely accommodates, but is also driven toward aggressively satisfying the broad range of bicycle transportation needs would be a powerful tool in this direction. Toward this end, the study focused on identifying essentials of such a vision for a bicycle transportation system and articulating the attributes most likely to bring it success in application on the land in the urban areas of Minnesota. The approach taken in this study was simple. It focused on attempting to answer two general questions: (1) How can the bicycle effectively compete with the automobile as a mode of urban transportation? and (2) What can be learned from the apparent success of the urban motor vehicle roadway transportation that can be applied to foster expanded use of bicycling as urban transportation?