Bike-Index: um índice de acessibilidade velocípede recorrendo a programação em ambiente SIG

A cycling accessibility index – Bike-Index – is presented, based on the metabolic effort of the cyclist as measure of impedance between origins and destinations, and the limitations imposed by that effort. Adequate to study cycling accessibility in hilly cities, the Bike-Index requires a Geographical Information System and script programming in that environment. The calculation methodology is presented and applied to a case-study, the city of Coimbra, Portugal, results showing that accessibility depends both on centrality and topography, the latter penalizing hill-side zones and plateaus with few urban facilities.