A bit more than a week ago, I mentioned Nicolas Collignon's article, in which he wonders why bicycles aren't in planners' thoughts about sustainable transportation and other aspects of urban planning.
A bit more than a year ago, I described one of the rare examples in which transportation cycling has been made a part of sustainability planning: a bike lane with solar panels in--where else?--the Netherlands.
Well, I have just learned of another bike lane with solar panels--in South Korea. The Asian path, however, is not only much longer (about 32 km vs 330 meters), but also has a very different design from its European counterpart.
The Maartensdijk ribbon has solar cells embedded in its prefabricated concrete blocks. The lane from Daejeon to Sejong--the country's administrative capital--sits in the middle of a major highway and is segregated, not only from that highway, but (at least in part) from the elements. That lane is covered by a series of canopies of solar panels, which, its designers say, not only generates clean energy, but also encourages cycling in less-than-ideal weather conditions--and shields melanin-deficient folks like me from the rays that are being harnessed for power.
The Korean bike lane has been open and widely used since 2014. Given all of the talk about sustainability, I wonder why so little attention has been paid to it.
I also wonder why there aren't more similarly integrative solutions to the problems of sustainability. And, like Nicolas Collignon, I wonder (actually, I know some of the reasons why, but still...) why bicycles aren't included in the first place, especially here in the US.
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