Social Sciences 2016; 5(6): 77-85 http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ss doi: 10.11648/j.ss.20160506.11 ISSN: 2326-9863 (Print); ISSN: 2326-988X (Online) Evaluation of Bicycling Environment for Urban Mobility: A Case of Selected Roads in Khulna Metropolitan City Md. Sohel Rana 1 , Muhammad Salaha Uddin 2 , Md. Abu Saeed Al Azad 3 1 Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Pabna University of Science and Technology, Pabna, Bangladesh 2 Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Khulna University of Engineering and Technology, Khulna, Bangladesh 3 Global Survey Consultants (GSC), Dhaka, Bangladesh Email address: sohelrana1017051@gmail.com (Md. S. Rana), msupavel@yahoo.com (M. S. Uddin), abusaeed044@gmail.com (Md. A. S. Al Azad) To cite this article: Md. Sohel Rana, Muhammad Salaha Uddin, Md. Abu Saeed Al Azad. Evaluation of Bicycling Environment for Urban Mobility: A Case of Selected Roads in Khulna Metropolitan City. Social Sciences. Vol. 5, No. 6, 2016, pp. 77-85. doi: 10.11648/j.ss.20160506.11 Received: November 20, 2016; Accepted: December 12, 2016; Published: January 5, 2017 Abstract: Bicycle is considered as one of the sustainable, and active modes of transportation. However, in the urban milieu bicycling has not been prioritized yet, and not been integrated with the other forms of transportation modes. This scenario is more ubiquities for a developing country like Bangladesh. Khulna is the third largest city, and with industrial setup has noticeable number of bicycle users. Unfortunately, the bicycling environment for this particular group of travelers in the city is not up to the standard. From this realization, this study has been conducted to explore the bicycling environment of selected roads on the basis of fourteen established criteria of evaluating bicycling environment. Six roads have been studied for this purpose. It has been found that all of the roads are not up to the standard for bicycling, though numbers of bicyclists have been observed in all of the roads. Each of the roads has been critically assessed by conducting physical, and user opinion survey. Scores have been compared of the selected six roads to give the ranks of the roads. The results from user perspective, and evaluation criteria slightly differ in outcomes. According to the assessment of evaluation criteria Ahsan Ahmed Road is only providing 17% suitable environment to the bicyclists. On the other hand, according to user opinion Municipal road is providing better services than the rest five roads. Evaluation of bicycling environment has given a detail scenario of how different roads are serving to bicyclists. It has been cleared that none of the roads (studied roads) has been giving optimum services to the bicycle user. To promote, and improve the situation for bicycling planned intervention is mandatory according to the situational analysis. This study is providing an insight to think about the bicycling planning at city level. Keywords: Bicycling Environment, Evaluation Criteria, User Perspective, Bicycling Planning 1. Introduction and Background Humans are mobile in nature, and in modern urban life people move from here to there on a regular basis such as from home to work, school, office, and others. The nature of mobility differs from place to place, and characteristic pattern of physical development influences the mobility in urban context. The mobility of some people (fast drivers) is undoubtedly very high in sprawling city where most streets are designed for fast traffic. The tendency of pedestrians to speedy car, and automobiles are increased while alternative modes of transportation such as walking, and bicycling decreased. However, Bicycle is considered as one of the sustainable modes in transportation system. It is a universally accepted contemporary mode of transportation. There is no parallel competitor of bicycle considering its non-polluting, space-saving, resource conserving, and health enhancing characteristics. In city context for urban mobility bicycle is usually acceptable to planners, and policy makers as a part of promoting multi-modal transportation system. Politicians endorse it, and there are dedicated support groups that vocally promote bicycle system as the solution for almost all city mobility problems [1]. As a sustainable mode of urban transportation bicycle has become a popular phenomenon over the world to ensure sustainable urban mobility. Denmark, Germany and Netherlands have made their cities bicycle friendly, and car unfriendly. A range of taxes, restrictions on car ownership, parking, and use have made driving expensive and