Effectiveness of Bicycle Signals for Improving Safety and Multimodal Mobility at Urban Intersections

With increase of the non-motorized transportation users, more people are concerned about the non-motorized safety. Statistics shows that the majority of pedestrian and bicycle crashes occur at intersections on urban streets. For bicycle crashes, failing to yield/disregarding traffic control was identified as one of the main causes of bicycle crashes in Michigan. As a countermeasure to address such issues, more attention is paid to bicycle traffic signals at urban intersections. At the same time, there are needs for optimizing signal timing not solely for vehicular traffic but also for pedestrian and bicyclists, especially when bicycle signals are available. This research aims to investigate effects of bicycle signals at urban intersections on both safety and multimodal system efficiency. The bike signal system will be further investigated in conjunction with advanced bicycle infrastructure, such as bike boxes and protected intersection for bicyclists. The main purpose of this research is to provide an application guideline for bicycle signals by evaluating effectiveness at urban intersections. While this study employs a simulation approach in evaluating multimodal system performance, a field test will be conducted at the City of Grand Rapids in Michigan to investigate behavior and perceptions by different groups: drivers, pedestrian and bicyclists.

• Record URL:
  http://www.wmich.edu/transportationcenter/trclc-16-4

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $79589
• Contract Numbers:

  DTRT13-G-UTC60 TRC-16-04

• 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:

  Western Michigan University

  1903 W. Michigan Avenue
  Kalamazoo, MI  United States  49008-5241

  Transportation Research Center for Livable Communities

  Western Michigan University
  Kalamazoo, MI  United States  49009-5316
• Principal Investigators:

  Oh, Jun-Seok

  Kwigizile, Valerian

• Start Date: 20160901
• Expected Completion Date: 20180430
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cyclists; Guidelines; Infrastructure; Intersections; Mobility; Optimization; Pedestrian safety; Traffic safety; Traffic signal timing; Traffic signals; Urban areas; Vehicle mix; Yielding
• Geographic Terms: Grand Rapids (Michigan)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01610404
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Center for Livable Communities
• Contract Numbers: DTRT13-G-UTC60 TRC-16-04
• Files: UTC, RiP
• Created Date: Sep 9 2016 10:13AM