How to integrate bicycles into a city.
The integration of a system of bicycle infrastructure in a city it is no longer a recommendable option, it is a necessity, not to say an "obligation" that modern cities They must acquire structures capable of detaching their inhabitants from motor vehicles for the benefit of transport systems that are more friendly to the environment and in balance with urban planning and the most coherent and beneficial architecture for their inhabitants.
We are not talking about anything new, and examples of implementing a system of "Soft mobility" in a city around the world there are many, but in this case we want to present a project that has received different awards and that shows quality carried out by a Spanish architect, Luis Gallego Pachón, calledMadrid CycleSpace - Madrid Cyclable Space (Strategic Plan for Soft Mobility - The metropolitan network of Non-Stop Ciclopista), with the aim of integrating a bicycle network and infrastructure with a series of peculiarities and palpable benefits for those who live and pass throughMadrid.
Madrid Cycle-Space «The cyclable space»
«We are moving toward a change in the way we view our cities and road environments. They can no longer be considered simply as transport corridors for the motor, but as latent, habitable, permeable and soft public spaces, where the pedestrian and cyclist will be the protagonists. «
As a preview, we leave the presentation video of the project to have a global idea of the concept of Madrid Cyclespace.
Madrid Cyclespace therefore configures a new paradigm of soft mobility: the network of non-stop bike paths.
Comparable to the arrival of highways in 1930 and their deformation and transformation of the typological and urban landscape; the development of the bike path network will have the potential to have a far-reaching effect on spatial and city planning.
Madrid Cycle-Space proposes the generation of a new dimension of mobility …"The cyclable space". An autonomous road stratum, which by means of an orographic patchwork of elevated and coexisting cycle paths, overcomes the physical and artificial barriers of the city, generating a new non-stop circulation network.
It will be 100% permeable, connecting the new stratum with the existing one through fixed and temporary accesses with different dimensions, responding to inflows, and radii of influence in the urban fabric, being able to assume any future connection or new connection.
It will integrate a storage and services system, organized by scale, adapting to bike paths and different urban situations and plots.
Madrid Cycle-Space will not only save the physical and artificial barriers but will also make the movements more flexible and permeable; it will reduce times and bring distances closer; it will generate and recover public spaces taking advantage of the resolution of obsolete intersections and nodes; it will be self-sufficient; it will reduce the energy of electric vehicles, increasing their autonomy and reducing their energy cost; it will absorb elements of the sidewalk, cleaning the pedestrian space, and helping to improve the soft mobility set; and it will take advantage of its properties of extension and arterial influence, serving as a latent metropolitan support for installations, becoming itself a supply and messaging network.
Manifest
The cyclable space it must integrate and solve all the infrastructures, supports, services, conditions and dimensions necessary for the soft mobility plan; responding to the metropolitan, urban, and road scale.
A new concept of cyclable and soft road space is defined:
The network of non-stop bike paths
Highway
(From car and track)
1.f. Highway with separate carriageways for both directions of traffic, each with two or more lanes, without level crossings.
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Bike path
(Of cycle and track)
«1.f. Soft track with separate lanes for both directions of traffic, each with two or more lanes, without level crossings, equipped, non-stop. »
0. The potential cyclable space
The cyclable space must respond to the direct conditions of the city. It will be represented in an atlas made up of a flow trace, an archipelago of nodes, a mesh of slopes and ones. It will form an open, unfinished tool that must be adapted and modified over time, assuming the changes in urban mobility.
1. Balancing the utopian / pragmatic network
Taking into account the potential cyclable space, the cyclable network will balance between the most optimal routes, the distance / time relationship, intermodality, connectivity and the connection between the greatest number of potential origins and destinations. There will be a primary network of cycle paths, which can assume future transformations and modifications through a secondary, latent network of adaptation routes.
2. Dynamic cycle paths
They will be made up of geometric characteristics that adapt to the different functions and flows of each line of the network, reasons for travel and potential users of the urban and metropolitan axes studied.
3. Orographic patching
The slopes of the bike paths will always be equal to or less than 2%. By configuring a new autonomous road stratum, which by means of an orographic patch of elevated and coexisting cycle paths, overcomes the physical and artificial barriers of the city.
4. Road adaptation
The network of cilopistas will adapt to the existing street widths, the predominant height ranges, separation between buildings, pavement uses, signs and potential supports on the road. It will also respect privacy in high elevation situations through different types of enclosure.
5. Conflicts with other users
It will avoid and solve the road conflict between the different road users and their corresponding spaces, always benefiting soft mobility.
6. Dimensions and road situations: Neu-Neufert
The cycle paths will be dimensioned with a new reference, attending not only to dynamic situations in circulation but also in intersection, parallel movement, stop, detour, access, accident, rest and coexistence with other soft users. It will therefore have stopping shoulders, interstitial margins, safety, detours, incorporations, mechanical and electrical service areas, rest areas, parking etc …
7. Non-stop routes
It must have the quality of continuity, they will be non-stop routes, without obstacles, that separate users of soft and motorized mobility, avoiding accidents, reducing times and approaching distances.
8. Permeability: Accesses and Magnets
It will be 100% permeable, complemented by accesses of a fixed or temporary nature with different dimensions, inflows, and radii of influence in the urban fabric. The network should be able to assume any future connection or new splice.
9. Intersections and generation of public spaces
It will solve and save the conflictive nodes, through protected intersections at level, squares, roundabouts and elevated junctions, generating and recovering public spaces absorbed by the asphalt and the engine.
10. Storage and services
It should offer a catalog of storage and services, organized by scale, adapting to bike paths and different urban situations and plots. Rethinking in turn those urban elements that need to adapt to the general use of bicycles.
11. Cost, Construction and Maintenance
It will be composed of a constructive and structural phylogenesis from the minimum elements and materials, reducing costs, adapting to the different possible situations, and also facilitating minimal maintenance.
12. Urban integration and signage
It must be well signposted in itself and towards the urban environment. The supports in elevated situations will always adapt to your situation at level. Protecting in case of support on the road, and offering services and furniture to soft users and the pedestrian environment in a support situation on the sidewalk.
13. Protection against the weather
It will be conveniently protected against weather conditions that prevent good circulation, through multipurpose enclosures that adapt to different urban environments.
14. Facilities: Self-sufficient infrastructure
It will be self-sufficient. It will generate its own energy by taking advantage of the kinetic energy of the road, solar energy and rainwater, supplying its lighting, sound, wireless, air and water systems.
15. Metropolitan Facilities Support
It will take advantage of its properties of extension and arterial influence, serving as a latent metropolitan support for facilities, becoming itself a supply network.
16. Cleaning the pedestrian area
Taking advantage of the different support and structure situations, it will absorb whenever possible, road and urban elements of the sidewalk, cleaning the pedestrian space, and helping to improve the soft mobility set.
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Main text and project carried out byLuis Gallego Pachón, more images and information from your profile HERE. And on the Afasiaarchzine portal … HERE.
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Links of interest of the portal:
- How to urbanize a street with coherence
- The concept of sustainable development in cities
- How to design urban roads
- Resilience in the face of urban planning in cities.
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