Bicycles represent one of the most affordable, efficient, and healthy transportation modes that we have available. They are especially viable in urban settings, where concentration of population and activities create proximity among destinations. It is furthermore needed considering that the concentration of population and activities tend to create motor-vehicle traffic congestions, air and noise pollution, and undesirable land-use patterns.
By now it is well observed and documented that relying on private motor vehicles for mass transit is wasteful, inefficient, polluting, and harmful in many levels. The preferred and mostly successful models in many cities and metropolitan regions around the world implement some combination of train, subway, trolley, bus, ferry lines, and bicycles.
In most models, bicycles play an important role in short and medium length trips. They are an excellent mode of transportation as a connection between home, work, school, and mass transit hubs such as train stations.
Subsequent to their efficiency, reliability, affordability, and environmental compatibility, bicycles also take position as an equitable component in the transportation of masses and in the shaping of human ecology in most urban settings.
The obvious transportation, environmental, economic, social, and health benefits of cycling explain why many cities across the world make substantial investments in facilitating massive bicycle use. Currently, major cities such as Copenhagen (Denmark), Freiburg (Germany), Vienna (Austria), Groningen (Holland), Toronto (Canada), and Portland (USA), among many others have city-wide successful bicycle programs in operation.
This website is dedicated to explore different aspects of bicycle use as it relates to improving life-quality in urban/metropolitan settings. In particular, this websites examines the role of community bike library programs in facilitating and enhancing bicycle use.