Projeto de Rota Cicloviária para o Vale do Aço

Urban mobility is one of the main challenges of city management. Population growth, the ease of obtaining a private motor vehicle and the lack of investment in public transportation have made it difficult to move around in cities. Urban mobility by bicycle, historically popular in some countries such as Netherlands and Denmark, has gained space in Brazil in recent years. The use of the bicycle as a means of transportation brings several benefits, such as saving time in traffic, saving money, it does not pollute the environment and it is healthy. In order for cycling to be performed with quality and for the population to feel encouraged to use this vehicle, it is necessary to offer a quality infrastructure for this purpose, providing safety and well-being to the cyclist and to the other users of the road, such as pedestrians and drivers. Thus, the objective of this study is the planning of a cycle route for the Vale do Aço region, which connects the centers of its three main cities, Ipatinga, Coronel Fabriciano and Timóteo, aiming to promote sustainable urban mobility by bicycle through the implantation of an adequate infrastructure, according to standards and manuals, with regard to paving, signaling, drainage and lighting, as well as special items for bicycles, such as bicycle racks and bicycle parking lots. The preliminary study evaluated the characteristics of the existing infrastructure in the path traced to the route through a method of rapid evaluation of cycle paths, and through the analysis of the results, solutions were presented for each section of the route.