# Physarum-Inspired Bicycle Lane Network Design in a Congested Megacity
## 4 Computational Experiments
### Test Case 1: BLN for Central Dhaka Area
#### 4.3.2 Effectiveness Measure of BLN Design for Central Dhaka  
Table 3 compares travel times on bicycles through the proposed BLN with the time required by car (taxicab or motorbike) and bus from node point 1 to other nodes on a typical working day. The travel times for cars and buses were estimated from Google Maps and found close to practical values. On the other hand, bicycle travelling time is almost constant all day; travel times for cars/buses are different by time period due to traffic conditions and other issues; therefore, the travel times are presented at 6 am, 10 am, and 4 pm for better realization. Travel by bus to visit a particular location may require several  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Destination Node Point** & **Optimal Routes** & **Distance (km)** & **Estimated Travel Time (min)** \\ \hline  
& 5.2 & 23.3 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 2: Optimal bicycle routes, distance and estimated travel time from node point 1 (central point) to different node points through BLN.  
transits due to changing buses and may also require walking a short distance to catch the next bus. At a glance, travel time by bus is the accumulation of the actual travel time, transit time, and walking time to change terminals. The transit time may depend on the frequency of bus trips and available trips at the time, so that travel time by bus at 10 am, a busy office hour with very dense traffic but the highest frequency of buses, is less than at 6 am. Moreover, in several cases, bus routes are not available if marked with '-' in the table.  
According to Table 3, bicycle travel time is competitive with that of cars and much less than by bus. A car takes the least time, at 6 am when traffic is lowest, to visit any place, but a bicycle takes the least time during office hours for the same distance. As an example, the travel distance to visit node 2 from node 1 is 8.6 km and travel time by car at 6 am, 10 am, and 4 pm are 18, 39, and 36 min, respectively. The route distance between node 1 and node 2 on the BLN is 8.6 km and the travel time on a bicycle is 30.7 min, which saves 21% more time than a car at the peak office hour, 10 am. For the same distance, a bus takes 56 min at 10 am, which is almost double that of a bicycle. The bottom of Table 3 shows the sums of the travel distances and required times to travel by bicycle and other vehicles. The total vehicle route distance is 156.2 km, and travel time at 10 am is 841 min by car. On the other hand, the total BLN distance is 183.3 km which is larger than vehicle distance, but total travel time is 690.3 min, which is much less than by car at office hours. Figure 5 illustrates the average travel speed by car, bus, and bicycle through the BLN, based on the data presented in Table 3. The average travel speed of the bicycle is 15.9 km/h, which is  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Destination Node Point**} & \multirow{2}{*}{
\begin{tabular}{c} **Distance** \\ **Using Motor** \\ **Vehicle (km)** \\ \end{tabular} } & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Time Required by Car,**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Time Required by Bus**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Travel by Bicycle through**} \\  & & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Taxicab or Motorbike (min)**} & & & & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Proposed BLN**} \\ \cline{5-10}  & & **6 a.m.** & **10 a.m.** & **4 p.m.** & **6 a.m.** & **10 a.m.** & **4 p.m.** & **Distance (km)** & **Time (min)** \\ \hline
2 & 8.6 & 18 & 39 & 36 & 62 & 56 & 61 & 8.6 & 30.7 \\
3 & 8.9 & 19 & 42 & 39 & 65 & 60 & 65 & 9.8 & 34.4 \\
4 & 7.1 & 14  
only inferior to a car at 6 am (i.e., 27.2 km/h), which is reasonable. At a glance, bicycle speed is almost double that of a bus at any time. Finally, results compared in Table 3 and Figure 5 clearly revealed the time-saving potential of using a bicycle in congested city areas.