Addressing Bicycle-Vehicle Conflicts with Alternate Signal Control Strategies
Over the last decade there has been increased interest in promoting active and sustainable transportation modes such as bicycling and walking especially in urban areas, as a means to alleviate congestion, lower emission levels and improve personal health. In urban areas, intersections are locations where a variety of modes converge, thus increasing the propensity for conflicts. Many bicycle-vehicle crashes occur at intersections. A common crash type involving bicycles at intersections is the “right-hook” where a right-turning vehicle collides with a through bicyclist. Intersections are also the source of increased stress for many bicyclists where the interactions with cars are more pronounced. Geometric treatments such as pavement markings, bike boxes, colored lanes, and shared right-turn lane designs have been implemented in an attempt to alleviate the problem. While the use of signal timing treatments has been limited until now, cities are beginning to explore treatments such as leading bicycle intervals, split leading bicycle intervals and exclusive phasing using bicycle specific signals. While exclusive phasing eliminates the bicycle-vehicle conflict by separating the phases and restricting turns, the trade-off is a decrease in efficiency at the intersection with increased delays for all users. An emerging operational treatment at intersections is to provide a split leading bicycle interval (split LBI), with concurrent green for bicycles, pedestrian walk and green for the through vehicles while restricting or essentially delaying the right turn for vehicles. After a certain time, the restriction on turns is lifted. The same treatment could also be used for pedestrians and offers advantages over the traditional leading bike and pedestrian intervals (LBI, LPI) in that there is no lost time for through vehicles. This study will evaluate various signal timing control strategies that are designed to minimize conflicts between bicycles, pedestrians and turning vehicles using micro simulation, deployment and video based conflict analysis to study efficiency and safety impacts.
- Record URL:
Language
- English
Project
- Status: Completed
- Funding: $303342
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Contract Numbers:
NITC 897
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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 211 West Aspen Ave
Flagstaff, Arizona United States 86001 1120 SW Fifth Avenue, Suite 800
Portland, Oregon United States 97204 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Engineering Bldg, 301D, 1930 SW 4th Ave.
Portland, OR United States 97201 Civil and Environmental Engineering
PO box 15600
Flagstaff, Arizona United States 86011 -
Managing Organizations:
TREC at Portland State University
1900 SW Fourth Ave, Suite 175
P.O. Box 751
Portland, Oregon United States 97201 -
Project Managers:
Hagedorn, Hau
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Performing Organizations:
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Engineering Bldg, 301D, 1930 SW 4th Ave.
Portland, OR United States 97201 Civil and Environmental Engineering
PO box 15600
Flagstaff, Arizona United States 86011 -
Principal Investigators:
Kothuri, Sirisha
Monsere, Chris
Nordback, Krista
Smaglik, Edward
- Start Date: 20150801
- Expected Completion Date: 20171231
- Actual Completion Date: 20180401
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Bicycle crashes; Bicycle travel; Intersections; Mode choice; Right turn lanes; Road markings; Sustainable transportation; Traffic conflicts; Traffic crashes; Traffic signal timing; Walking
- Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01632278
- Record Type: Research project
- Source Agency: National Institute for Transportation and Communities
- Contract Numbers: NITC 897
- Files: UTC, RIP
- Created Date: Apr 13 2017 12:24PM