“BICI-METRO”: An alternative project to Sky Cycles is available for global implementation!

The project involves two glass and steel tubes held up by sleek structures with a futuristic and sexy look forming a fast, healthy, responsible and money-saving answer to transportation. City Halls/Councils around the World are already checking this project, from Prof. Arch. Richard Moreta Castillo, a Dominican designer, architect and urbanist. He is one of the most prominent architects of Latin America and one of the pioneers on elevated eco-routes, developed since 1998, and his PHD Thesis in 2004, in Italy. His works are all about Avant-garde, Ecology, sense of humour, performance.

What he proposes is something outstanding: An example of 12 hour of use on a 10km section (6.25 Miles) of his elevated cycle track could mobilize 350 thousand people, have capacity for 18,000 manual and electrical vehicles, save the production of 1.75 tons of CO2 and save 262,500 gallons of fossil fuels! And those not all the benefits: solar and wind generation of surplus energy, ultra quiet traffic, better health, less accidents, time savings, and in general, a better city performance.

Why do I mention this specific project? Well, when reading several online magazines converging on the →Sky Cycles London (Elevated Bike Lanes), about Sam Martin’s idea of getting the cyclists off London’s dense street traffic  and up to the sky, I could not stop noticing the direct relevance to Richard Moreta’s project: the Bicimetro-Bicitaxi-Eco-Bahn.

And I have some objections to Sam Martin’s Sky Cycles. The biggest hiccups are the not consolidated, Alpha stage design (or poorly done), the costs and the usage fees, and the danger of lanes with opposite circulation. In rush hours, cyclists will be exposed to the potential danger of frontal collisions, and therefore fatal accidents (imagine hundreds of cyclists speeding at 20+ mph in opposite directions).

Prof.Arch. Moreta Castillo commented once about witnessing a sad fatal accident when a cyclist hit a child riding full speed on a plaza. This event together with his interest with low impact architecture, inspired the “BICIMETRO – BICITAXI – ECO_BAHN” which also separates de circulation directions into two different tunnels to increase safety as well as speed.

Finally, he proposes ways of finance and revenue what will attract investors and seduce commuters, as it will be free of use. These design features are more adequate to crowded cities, where cycling is a necessity. So, why not Safer, cheaper and better? M. Silvers G.

22 Oct This entry was published on October 22, 2012 at 4:23 pm. It’s filed under ENGLISH and tagged BICI, bicitaxi, eco-bahn, richard moreta castillo, sky cycles, solar energy, transportation. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.