ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION MODES: Comparative study between Copenhagen and Patras

Nowadays, the opinion supporting that the citizens of big urban areas should change their transport habits is going from strength to strength. The problems caused by the extended use of private motor vehicles, tend to prove that it is indispensable to turn our attention to more vulnerable transport modes. Social problems, as congestion and environmental pollution, combined with personal problems, such as lack of training and isolation, creating the prospect that if the vulnerable transport modes, and mostly the bicycle, become attractive and competent to the traditional modes, the social and individual benefits will be very important. Nevertheless, in order to encourage the citizens to change their habits, we must provide them the appropriate circumstances. In some places around Europe, like Copenhagen, the conditions achieve already a high level, resulting to the positive response of the citizens. However, in some other places, like Patras, there are no special conditions that encourage citizens to cycle or to walk. In the first occasion we need to propose some measures that will keep improving the status of bicycle in the transport network. In the second occasion, we need to apply fundamental actions focused on the construction of appropriate facilities and the traffic education of the people, concerning the circulation of vulnerable road users. During this study, we focus only on the improvement of cycling conditions, because bicycle is easier to become competent against the other modes and mostly car. At first, we record the existing situation of Copenhagen, focusing on special regulations that favor the cyclists. Afterwards, the observations are associated with the opinion of a specific part of the citizens. Specifically, based on a prototype questionnaire, we request the opinion of numerous students of DTU about the cycling conditions and their road behavior as cyclists. Moreover, we attempt to determine the personal characteristics that make a citizen more likely to be attracted to cycle. The tool, for this effort is another set of data, more representative this time. We run a multinomial logit model, using as explanatory variables several personal characteristics and we predict the preferred transport mode for each citizen. The results from the two investigations are interesting, thus they provide important information about the problems that still concern the cyclists, as well as they reveal those population groups that tend to prefer cycling and they can constitute better target groups for further promotion of cycling, in the near future. Furthermore, we handle the situation of Patras, recording again the situation and pointing on the absence of adequate facilities, we try to export some proposals that will make the city more bicycle friendly. The opinion of the citizens plays crucial role again. Another questionnaire, focused more on qualitative values, depicted the conditions that the usual cyclists confront. The elaboration of the facts leads to the proposition of a specific plan, which aims to establish bicycle tracks in a route which connects the center of the city with the University area and also the implementation of some measures that will assure the normal introduction of bicycle in the traffic environment of the city. Concluding, this study provides some special results for each situation, which cannot be used easily to other places, but also it provides some useful guidelines about the important factors that affect the cycling conditions of a city. These factors are sufficient, but if we want to sum up the whole results in two words, those would be INFRASTRUCTURE and EDUCATION.