Effects of On-Street Bicycle Facility Configuration on Bicyclist and Motorist Behavior

Abstract

Growing awareness of environmental and public health problems associated with motorized transportation has led to a recent effort to promote nonmotorized modes of travel. Previous studies have shown that facility design plays a large role in encouraging bicycling. With the aim of defining the roadway configurations that lead to safe motorist and bicyclist behavior, this research examines the impact of design elements, including the type and width of the bicycle facility, the presence of adjacent motor vehicle traffic, parking turnover rate, land use, and the type of motorist-bicyclist interaction. Observational studies conducted at 48 sites in three large Texas cities characterize bicyclist and motorist behavior through lateral position measurements and instances of motorist encroachment on an adjacent lane. These observations were used to build two multivariate regression models and allowed for direct site-to-site comparisons. Notable results include the observation that bicycle lanes create a safer and more predictable riding environment relative to wide outside lanes, and that the provision of a buffer between parked cars and bicycle lanes is the only reliable method for ensuring that bicyclists do not put themselves at risk of being hit by opening car doors.

Bike Sharing and Urban Mobility in a Post-Pandemic World

“…Fig. 3 shows a heat map of the ridership data of the subway (above) and the Citi Bike system (below) in the first week of March, from the publicly available data on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) 13 and Citi Bike 14 websites. It is easy to see that, while the subway serves an order of magnitude more users than the bike sharing system, the patterns of activity are similar.…”

“…The natural and built environment plays a large role in the use of bike sharing [13] and of cycling as a mode of transportation in general, as does urban and traffic planning: in particular, the creation of bike lanes physically separated from car traffic and the integration of bike sharing with mass transit need to be considered. The presence and design of bike lanes can improve safety and reduce dangerous behavior [14] from cyclists and motorists: Northern European countries such as the Netherlands and Denmark have seen a sharp decline in cycling injuries and deaths thanks to their cyclingfriendly urban planning and traffic laws. The experience from these countries [15] shows that urban design plays a key role in encouraging cycling as a mode of transportation, not just bike sharing use.…”

Planning for Bike Share Connectivity to Rail Transit

“…Sidewalks, bike lanes, and off-street paths facilitate more comfortable, safe travel for cyclists to destinations such as transit stops (Akar and Clifton 2009; Duthie et al 2010; Iseki and Tingstrom 2014; Krizek, Handy, and Forsyth 2009). Surveys of bicyclists indicate that higher levels of on-street bicycle accommodations, such as protected bike lanes rather than wide curb lanes, are preferred for general transportation by both men and women (Dill et al 2015), and specifically for accessing transit stations (Taylor and Hahmassani 1996).…”

Reduction of CO 2 emission and non-environmental co-benefits of bicycle infrastructure provision: the case of the University of Novi Sad, Serbia

“…Recent studies on evaluation of bicycle infrastructure provision effects are related to the basic infrastructure elements, such as bicycle paths [67][68][69] and bicycle parking facilities [69,[70][71][72]. Also, evaluation of public bike schemes provision is attracting attention of many scholars [47,[73][74][75][76].…”

“…For example, Duthie et al [68] studied effects linked to design of bicycle infrastructure on behavior and safety of both cyclists and motorists in three large Texas cities, US, while Krizek [69] examined effect of bicycle trail proximity on home value in Minneapolis-St. Paul, US by using home sales data. In addition, Mulley et al [46] presented methodology for quantifying demand, and the mortality and morbidity change linked with active travel, in order to strength social cost benefit analysis for transport infrastructure investment for Australian context.…”