Gothenburg as a Bicycle Friendly City
Ladda ner
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Infrastructure and environmental engineering (MPIEE), MSc
Publicerad
2022
Författare
Ngo, Josefin
Hermansson, Linn
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
Cycling is an attractive transportation alternative with benefits including improved
health and increased social interactions. Additionally, cycling is a transportation
mode with low environmental impacts and occupies a limited space in traffic. A
vision of the municipality of Gothenburg is that 75 % of the citizens should perceive
the city as bicycle friendly. However, studies have shown that only 41 % have this
opinion. To reach the goal of increasing the perception of Gothenburg as a bicycle
friendly city, the aim of this study is to identify necessary factors for a city to be
perceived as bicycle friendly. Further, critical factors for specific stretches within
Gothenburg will be investigated.
This master thesis consists of several parts and methods. Firstly, a literature review
and interviews are conducted to create an overview of important factors for a bicycle
friendly city in general. These results are used to identify characteristics which in
turn form a basis to create a structured interview in terms of a survey. The aim of
the survey is to highlight lacking factors within the bicycle network of Gothenburg
from a user perspective. The result of the questionnaire is analyzed to identify the
most critical factors of the city, which are assigned to specific routes. In turn, the
critical factors are simulated in a spatial analysis using assumptions including route
choices from origins to destinations. Lastly, an observation is conducted to verify
the results of the spatial analysis. Further, the aim of the observation is to study
possible improvement measures for specific stretches of the routes.
The result of the literature review and interviews with experts, showed that high
priority of cycle infrastructure and traffic safety, including orientability and passability,
are important for a city to be perceived as bicycle friendly. The interview
with the public sector verified that this also applies to Gothenburg. According to
respondents of the survey, representing users, the bicycle network of Gothenburg
is lacking in several aspects. Some examples of lacking factors are connectivity
and continuity along the network, segregation from motor vehicles and pedestrians,
proper lane width, and generally, the priority of cycle passability compared
to other transportation modes. Further, the main critical factors associated with
specific routes are connectivity and continuity, existence of cycle paths, and segregation
from pedestrians. The spatial analysis shows that these factors are related
to stretches gathered around the inner city of Gothenburg where various road users
have to interact. Observation of selected routes verified that critical factors and
associated stretches identified by users, coincide.