Effect of Cycling Skills on Bicycle Safety and Comfort Associated with Bicycle Infrastructure and Environment

This study seeks to improve the methodology for determining the relationship between cycling dynamic performance and roadway environment characteristics across different bicyclists’ skill levels. To achieve the goal of this study, an Instrumented Probe Bicycle (IPB) equipped with various sensors was built. A naturalistic field experiment, including intersections, roundabout, alignment changes, and different road surface conditions, was conducted. Two self-reported questionnaires were used in order to obtain each participant’s skill level as well as perception on the level of cycling comfortability. The Cycling Comfortability Index (CCI) was derived from the probabilistic outcome of an Ordered Probit Model, which describes the relationship between bicycle dynamics and level of comfortability. Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), a technique widely used to measure the risk of a fault event occurrence in a system, was employed to integrate mobility and comfortability. The estimation results showed that the probability of a fault event occurrence is related to the bicyclist’s experience level, incline of the roadway, and quality of the road surface. It was also found that cycling comfort level is significantly affected by the average yaxis acceleration and the mean absolute deviation of the z-axis velocity. The results of this study have practical implications for improving bicyclist perceptions on comfortability and for increasing safety for cyclists.

• Record URL:
  http://wmich.edu/sites/default/files/attachments/u883/2017/TRCLC_RR_15-1_0.pdf
• 

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $83930
• Contract Numbers:

  DTRT13-G-UTC60

  TRC-15-01

• 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

  Western Michigan University

  1903 W. Michigan Avenue
  Kalamazoo, MI  United States  49008-5241
• Project Managers:

  Dunn, Denise

• Performing Organizations:

  Transportation Research Center for Livable Communities

  Western Michigan University
  Kalamazoo, MI  United States  49009-5316

  Western Michigan University

  1903 W. Michigan Avenue
  Kalamazoo, MI  United States  49008-5241
• Principal Investigators:

  Oh, Jun-Seok

  Ro, Kapseong

  Kwigizile, Valerian

• Start Date: 20150801
• Expected Completion Date: 20160731
• Actual Completion Date: 20170831
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers
• Subprogram: Research

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Abilities; Bicycle facilities; Bicycling; Comfort; Cyclists; Data collection; Infrastructure; Probe vehicles; Safety; Structural models; Vehicle dynamics
• Identifier Terms: Bikeability
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01590071
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Center for Livable Communities
• Contract Numbers: DTRT13-G-UTC60, TRC-15-01
• Files: UTC, RiP
• Created Date: Feb 9 2016 1:13PM