SAFE CYCLING IN TURKEY
The urban planning ministry of Turkey has decided to
take action to ensure safe cycling of its citizens in urban areas which are
congested with automotive traffic by building new facilities such as bicycle
roads and bicycle stations. This in my mind is a great idea because Turkey is
prioritizing keeping people on alternative modes of transit even though many of
its cities are well established. They plan on construction roads first based on
where the demand for these facilities are based on topography. These new bike
roads will be built in areas that also facilitate the use of buses, trains, and
subways, further helping the pubic congestion problems. By doing this they are
not just facilitating bicycling as an exercise activity but an actual mode of
transport for everyday use due to the added conveniences. In addition they will
be adding bus routes with buses equipped with bike racks to be able to get to
these new bike roads for safe travel. Not only do they plan on building this
but there has been thought allocated to actually educating the public.
Education of the public is an important aspect that I believe that many
projects with good intentions go nowhere after they are built when a good plan
is in place to do. They have also already planned on implementing a group of
workers of the municipalities to maintain these newly built bike roads. Turkeys
planning ministry has estimated that these roads could reduce their total
carbon emissions by 948 thousand tons annually. This whole undertaking to me
seems like a full fledge approach that helps so many of the problems that many
countries/cities will face in the future. This article stands out to me because
of the recent climate talks in Paris, as ways that not only drop emissions but
solve other problems.
-Nick Long
I would agree that the education aspect of this plan is highly important. I think there are a lot opportunities for alternative modes of transportation that are not taken advantage because either users don't know about them or they feel unsafe using them. I know several friends who own a bike to ride around campus on but who don't ever seem to think of riding their bike off campus as an alternative to driving their car
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