Designing for Cycle Traffic
International principles and practice
- Description
- Reviews
Designing for Cycle Traffic compares and evaluates international principles and practices for designing for cycle traffic. It sets design for cycling in the wider context of public realm design, traffic planning, traffic engineering and traffic management. The book mainly draws on UK, Dutch, Danish and North American principles, and it enables readers to understand how effective design can create efficient transport systems that support economic vibrancy, social activity, and environmental sustainability. A key theme is that only distinct and separate provision for cycle traffic can ensure the creation of attractive and comfortable infrastructure for cyclists.
Coverage includes:
- principles for design to ensure inclusivity
- planning processes for cycle route networks
- design approaches, including capacity calculations for links and junctions, roundabouts and crossings, and signal control
- modelling and level of service assessment approaches.
- each chapter is extensively illustrated, provides a concise overview of the topic, and includes an introductory overview and summary of chapter highlights.
- Written in an accessible style by an established international authority, Designing for Cycle Traffic is essential reading for students, designers and planners in the fields of traffic and highway engineering, spatial and transport planning, architecture and urban design.
John Parkin’s book is a practical road map on how to create the kind of streets we want to walk and ride along, places we want our children to grow up. Space not just for transport, but for living.
John Parkin’s book is very important. His comprehensive overview of international design guidance and practices enables designers to design in accordance with the needs and abilities of cyclists, and to achieve safer and more pleasant cycling in a variety of countries. The book is all the more important based on the lack of an equivalent in cycling of the exchange of information platforms such as the World Road Association and the Conference of European Directors of Roads.
This new book by John Parkin provides the most detailed and comprehensive guide to the engineering of cycling facilities I have ever seen. Designing for Cycle Traffic is fully up-to-date, incorporating the state-of-the-art best practices that have been developed over recent decades. A truly irresistible book for transport engineers and planners responsible for improving cycling facilities.
While some national and local authorities have issue regulations on designing and planning for cycle traffic, there is still an overall lack of guidance. This book helps to fill the gap. It covers all aspects related to cycling, from understanding why car traffic dominance must be reduced to design and planning in different scenarios, within or adjacent to carriageways. Specific attention is given to crossings. The book will be useful to urban planners and designers, as well as anyone concerned with transport infrastructure and mobility. Construction works managers could also find it useful for ensuring that temporary traffic diversions take proper account of cyclists.
The use of the words ‘Cycle Traffic’ in the book title represent a deliberate intention to change the culture of the industry. When a new road or development is planned, somewhere late on in the process the question of what to do with cyclists and pedestrians comes up. Nobody would dream of building a housing estate or new road junction that did not have access for cars and then at the last minute try to find some way to squeeze them in, but this is the norm for cycling. Design for cyclists is seldom integral to mainstream highway engineering and this book seeks to challenge the cultural norm that the legitimate road-users are drivers and everyone else is a ‘non-motorised road user’. Cycle traffic has distinct operating characteristics that are different from motor traffic and pedestrian traffic, requiring a unique set of planning and design approaches, just as we have for motorised transport. The book sets out the key topics in an easy-to-follow format. Each chapter starts with an overview of the content and ends with a summary of key points and important references. This makes it simple to find the relevant information on a particular issue. While the book is easy to read, it does not shy away from the detail, with technical appendices covering junction capacity and signal timing calculations, while tables and formulae within the text help explain the science behind common design structures. This is particularly helpful for the engineer who wants to try something innovative.
As you know, HPVs are convenient and efficient means of transportation that can travel many kilometers. At the same time, their design diversity allows their use both in inner cities and out of town. We associate with the "normal" bicycle that we have to use the existing infrastructure together. And this does not only apply to us in Germany, but above all also in Europe, and even worldwide. In order for even more people to use modern HPVs for their daily mobility in the future, it is more than welcome that the most recent publication (2018) by Prof. Dr. John Parkin from England has appeared, because here HPV's and the topic "infrastructure" are considered!
Cycling makes sense. It is an efficient use of public space in cities which can also help respond to pressing challenges of pollution, congestion, and last-mile connectivity. Cities and countries across the world have been experimenting and testing solutions to design, implement and expand cycling infrastructure to promote the physical and mental well-being of people. In this incredible book, […] principles and practices to promote cycle use are elaborated across 15 short and engaging chapters. Whether you are an engineer or an urban planner or a designer, the book will enlighten you and help you evaluate diverse principles and practices for designing infrastructure and managing traffic for cyclists. Whether you love cycling or hate it or have simply no opinion of it, this book is for you.