The missing path: Promiscuous bicycle lanes in urban areas

This paper deals with urban cycling considered as a factor of improvement of urban sustainability, if adequately supported by appropriate and efficient infrastructures. Starting from a classification of some conditions meant as the main dyscrasias that can occur analyzing a generic urban bikeway, this study proposes a methodological procedure aimed at formalizing a measure of the efficiency of the urban infrastructure dedicated to the soft mobility. The procedure pointed out proposes a measure of dyscrasias by considering not only the length in kilometers of urban bikeways, but it tries to indicate a set of variable able to express the real usability of the cycle paths. The procedure, here in its first formulation, could be considered as a tool to verify the condition that can improve the use of the bicycle as means of transport in an urban context, enhancing the urban livability through the optimization of the sustainable mobility.