Integrating cycle highways and cars

Very challenging to compete with are cars. A car usually brings a traveler very close to his or her destination. Transfering to bike mostly means enlarging your travel time. However, in dense urban areas bikes’ travel time competes very well to cars’ travel time. Planning a cycle highway demands a critical look of the touch points with car mobility. Implementing a park + ride along the cycling highway will generate success if:

• The user group is tempted to park their car and continue by bike
• The destination is attractive to reach by bike and discourages car parking
• The transfer is smooth and does not cost much effort
• The alternative, that is continuing by car, is unattractive

In Nijmegen, a multimodal trip consisting of car and bike is facilitated. The Ovelo bike sharing system is available at Park + Ride Nijmegen Noord. It is situated at the entrance of the urban environment. The Park + Ride was before only equipped with a bus stop where a bus shuttle is driving between the city centre and the Park + Ride. From the P+R it is a 20 minutes bike ride to the city centre. The pilot showed that it takes intensive communication programs to appeal to the potential user. Ovelo was mostly used for incidental visits to the city centre. In other words, the park + bike does not replace car trips for people who are driving there on a daily base. For the pilot results and insights, find the report below.

In essence, the car is very competitive to a cycle highway connection as they both are very flexible modes of transport. When attempting to realise an integrated cycle highway and car system, one should invest in the mental map of the chain and discourage car usage in the destination’s area.