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https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/27432/critical-issues-in-transportation-for-2024-and-beyond

Expanding Mobility Options for All: Optimizing and Extending the Biking Infrastructure to Generate Complete Street Networks in Atlanta

The Complete Streets policy aims to transform streets to accommodate multiple modes of travel, including the active modes, such as walking and biking. The objective is to make streets safe and convenient for all persons, including children, the elderly, and the disabled. The proposed project will develop complete multimodal networks to identify potential complete streets using the bike network as a connective thread. It emphasizes the accessibility of all destinations by various modes of travel and recognizes that not all streets need to be “complete'' to provide safe and convenient access to most destinations for all persons, regardless of age and ability. The goal is to find optimal strategies for connecting isolated cycling infrastructure to form complete networks that improve active mobility and public transit ridership. By aligning the bike network with transit and activity locations, we develop an approach for completing multimodal networks and identify streets that are best suited to become “complete streets." The objective of this study is to develop and implement an algorithm that would iteratively combine existing fragmented bike lanes, current and future transit hubs, and unmet demand for biking infrastructure into one integrated network. The criteria applied to connect the network fragments, and other significant locations mentioned above include transit access, activity location density, proximity to residential and commercial land uses, biking stress, street right-of-way and design, and terrain. The study will estimate the unmet demand for biking infrastructure and identify unserved locations by considering equity, need, and future transportation hubs. Also, street redesigns to accommodate bike lanes and transform rights-of-way to complete streets will be analyzed and validated with a high-fidelity microsimulation model using PTV VISSIM. The microsimulation process will generate 3D animation models for communication and dissemination. Finally, the current and potential streets that can be considered “complete" are identified and included in a mobility plan.