Hi, All!
Our project works to fully comply with the Bicycle Facilities credit. But the whole problem is, that due to the historical infrastructure development specifications, we do not have bike lanes in our city. People ride on sidewalks and share the roads with cars. The speed limit is more than 40km/h. Thus the car lanes are not eligible, the sidewalks are, but those are not marked.
Should I still continue preparing for this credit? Because I am forcing the constructor to invest in creating bicycle facilities in the building. If this is a useless effort, I should prevent excessive investments.
Thank you in advance.
Yasha Ogg
Sustainable Design LeadCANNON DESIGN
2 thumbs up
August 22, 2023 - 8:31 am
Hi Marine,
I think you should still prepare for the credit. Although there may not be any painted markings on the sidewalk, there is a street edge and a building edge on either side which identifies the edges of the path.
Furthermore, is having the bicycle facilities an excessive investement even if the project does not achieve the points? You would still be meeting the intent of the credit which is to reduce CO2 emissions and encourage healthy behaviors for people coming to your project.
Best of luck!
Marine Petrosyan
Project ManagerEnergy Systems LLC
August 22, 2023 - 9:10 am
My understanding is the following. LEED has my coutnry in the geography list, certain adoptations are of course required from applicant's side. But USGBC also does the best to support adoptation, thus with proper justification about the absence of the lanes and usage of sidewalks, USGBC may still want to give the credit, thus supporting the green transportation and health. Because bicycles will still be riden, people will still use the sidewalks. Rejecting the credit will not be any support. All other requirements of the credit are being met.
Dave Hubka
Practice Leader - SustainabilityEUA
LEEDuser Expert
532 thumbs up
August 23, 2023 - 9:41 pm
Back in 2018 GBCI provided a document that lists alternative compliance paths for projects in Europe, here is the link to that document: https://www.usgbc.org/resources/leed-v4-bdc-alternative-compliance-paths...
It includes an alternative compliance path for bike paths. If the issue in Armenia is similar to Europe, perhaps GBCI will allow your project to apply this guide.
Good Luck!
Marine Petrosyan
Project ManagerEnergy Systems LLC
August 24, 2023 - 2:31 am
Thank you for sharing the document! We will probably try to work on this direction. This is one of the key credits that we value for the certfication.