Brennan

Interesting article from today's Washington Post. A group at MIT has compiled a series of maps showing the most efficient forms of urban transport. Not surprisingly, bicycles scored quite well (although many of the readers seem to be at pains to accept this judging by the comments).

To examine the maps in detail, and perhaps find your own city, I recommend going to the direct link here. It's pretty cool. You can click on a spot in the city and it will reconfigure the map from that starting point. Note: The maps are a little slow to load.

howsteepisit

Interestingly, the maps key on the fastest mode of transportation, and calls that the best. Thats the same logic cars use to lambast cyclists, that they slow down things. I submit that fastest is not always the best.

Brennan

Actually, the individual maps refer to "fastest mode of transport." It's the the summary page that refers to "best" modes. They should change that because I agree that fastest is not always best, and I would edit to correct the thread title here if I had that ability. Doesn't diminish the usefulness of the maps though.

keyven

Yes speed is not always the most important factor, but in general, it is.

I can understand how someone who sees transportation as just that - transportation - would consider "speed" very high up on their list of necessities. Train users, bus riders and drivers generally don't rub their hands in glee at the thought of their morning commute.

Cyclists may argue that "enjoyment" is important, but the rest would disagree. Getting from Point A to B is all they want.

Schwinnhund

Since I use my bicycles for transportation, I prefer routes that have the following criteria:

Avoiding heavily trafficked areas as much as possible.
Avoiding very steep hills as much as possible.
Avoiding roads with no, or inadequate shoulders.
Routes that do not add more than 15% to the mileage.

Someone needs to make a program that can route you where you want to go using these criteria, sort of like a bicycle version of MapQuest. I use MapMyRide, but it does not take into consideration all the affore mentioned criteria.