Integrated bicycle transportation planning as an alternative to urban transportation problems

During the historical process after industrial revolution, production of motorized vehicles, and their being part of daily lives of people in the cities caused concentration of socio-economic mobility in cities and a dramatic increase in urban population. Increased population in city lead to physical expansion of it, an increase of distances and traveling times within the city. These developments caused the occurrence of big cities the populations of which go beyond millions; dense population increased the demand for urban transportation emerged by diversified uses. As a result of the raised urban transportation demand, car usage increased which lead to traffic congestion and unsustainable urban transportation. The solutions made for the transportation problems have been not only slow but also inefficient to solve the problem, and subsequently resulted in an increase in transportation demand. According to İstanbul Main Transportation Plan Household Report, in Istanbul, which has 23 million passengers per day, 64% of the mobility is occurred within the districts; 50.72% of that consists of motorized vehicles while 49.28% of that consists of pedestrians. 49.28% of pedestrian transportation which should not be underestimated and 64% of district transportation modes should be solved through integrity with the other transportation modes. Bicycle transportation is not considered as a solution to the transportation problems of a metropolitan city like Istanbul. However, in our country particularly in Istanbul, bicycle transportation has been slighted in current system. Considering cycling as a supplementary transportation mode and supplying required infrastructure of it, especially regarding the topography of Istanbul metropolitan area, it is certain that bicycle transport will be beneficial for urban transportation in most of the parts of Istanbul. In Istanbul, an average trip within districts is 5 to 6 kilometers. This is much less than 10 kilometers, which is the upper limit for a comfortable bicycle trip. Also considering the urban morphology; bicycle is an indispensible element for short-distance urban transportation and it has the potential of reducing traffic to lower levels. In line with this, environmental pollution problems originating from the use of motorized vehicles for short-distance journeys will be lowered as a result of increased bicycle use. Looking at examples for bicycle trasnsportation in developed countries; Kopenhag stands out in the Europen context, and San Francisco draws attention for its similarities to Istanbul. The examination and comparison of these two cities and their unique history of bicycle transportation, serve as an important example for Istanbul. Bicycle transportation develops with planning in a specific time frame. Each planned program differs from others and by implementing a special programme, it is possible for Istanbul to be successful in bicycle transportation planning. The important thing is to identify the mission, goals, principles of the programme properly and to detail this concept consisting of numbers to implement it. When taking urban morphology into consideration, it is seen that from head to tail there is a 75 km long highway infrastructure. In a city such as Istanbul, which has a good deal of natural thresholds and a linear structure, it can't be expected to use bicycle transportation for every journey. Consequently, many studies emphasize on the functionality and performance of an integrated transportation system and consider this a crucial tool for Istanbul. Such system will make bicycle journeys from the periphery to the center of the city possible. In a time of urbanization and rapid technological development, one would imagine urban journey times to decrease; however in most cases it does increase. This thesis concludes bicycle transportation as a solution to increasing journey times in cities. The implementation of bicycle lanes in European cities has been proved to be successful, and there is no reason for the cities of Turkey not to implement the same strategies. By reorganizing the urban transportation infrastructure, it is possible to implement strategies for bicycle transportation and the introduction of bicycle into the daily lives of citizens might be rewarding in many other ways. Bicycle transportation planning does not require the exact implementation of some strategies; every city has its own characteristics and therefore should implement detailed and different strategies according to its own needs. This thesis as a solution to the urban areas sees bicycle transportation "cycling" as a mode of tranport and provides an assesment to secure bicycle trips in inner cities. This should be amended legistation with a variety of sanctions to be carried out, ensureing the safety of cyclists in traffic, ensuring produced bicycle tranportation with world wide accepted standards and the encouragemnet of citizens must be provided. Bicycle transportation has the potential to put a smile upon the citizens' faces, to make the journeys more fun, to contribute to the urban economy, to reduce the traffic volumes and the time lost in it, and to create a more viable and practical urban transportation system.