Effects of Safe Bicycle Passing Laws on Drivers’ Behavior and Bicyclists’ Safety
This report identifies the effect of passing distance laws on drivers’ behaviors and bicyclist’s safety during an overtaking maneuver. Using an instrumented bicycle and driver survey, the study measured bicycle passing in a naturalistic field experiment using video recording, an ultrasonic distance measuring device, and a LiDAR. In order to evaluate the effect of passing distance laws, the study examined jurisdictions with a three-foot passing law, with a five-foot passing law, and without a passing law. The experiment required a bicyclist to ride the instrumented bicycle in twolane and three-lane roads to capture the distance between the bicycle and the overtaking motor vehicle. Moreover, a new analysis algorithm is presented to assess the speed and distance transformation of the vehicles approaching and entering the passing zone of the bicycle in micro level transportation systems. The results demonstrated that drivers’ overtaking distances were significantly greater in locations with the five-foot passing law than in other areas. The study also found that roads with paved shoulders, wider travel lanes, and a greater number of lanes were associated with greater passing distances. In contrast, we found that passing distance was shorter on roads with shared lane markings (i.e., sharrows) or higher truck composition. By comparing the surveys conducted in locations with different passing laws, the study illustrates that drivers usually overestimate the distance that they pass bicyclists. These results can be useful to transportation engineers, policymakers, and legislators who intend to provide efficient designs of road infrastructure to better accommodate bicycles
Language
- English
Project
- Status: Completed
- Funding: $79933
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Contract Numbers:
DTRT13-G-UTC60 TRC 17-05
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Sponsor Organizations:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
University Transportation Centers Program
Department of Transportation
Washington, DC United States 20590 -
Managing Organizations:
Transportation Research Center for Livable Communities
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo, MI United States 49009-5316 -
Project Managers:
Dunn, Denise
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Performing Organizations:
1903 W. Michigan Avenue
Kalamazoo, MI United States 49008-5241 -
Principal Investigators:
Van Houten, Ron
Oh, Jun-Seok
Kwigizile, Valerian
- Start Date: 20170815
- Expected Completion Date: 20180831
- Actual Completion Date: 20180831
- USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers
- Subprogram: Research
- Source Data: https://wmich.edu/sites/default/files/attachments/u883/2019/TRCLC_RR_17-05.pdf
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Behavior; Bicycle facilities; Bicycling; Culture (Social sciences); Distance; Drivers; Outreach; Passing; Policy, legislation and regulation; States; Traffic safety
- Subject Areas: Highways; Law; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01646252
- Record Type: Research project
- Source Agency: Transportation Research Center for Livable Communities
- Contract Numbers: DTRT13-G-UTC60 TRC 17-05
- Files: UTC, RIP
- Created Date: Sep 22 2017 10:46AM