Background: Understanding factors that influence the distance that drivers provide when passing cyclists is critical to reducing subjective risk and improving cycling participation. This study aimed to quantify passing distance and assess the impact of motor vehicle and road infrastructure characteristics on passing distance.
Methods: An on-road observational study was conducted in Victoria, Australia. Participants had a custom device installed on their bicycle and rode as per their usual cycling for one to two weeks. A hierarchical linear model was used to investigate the relationship between motor vehicle and infrastructure characteristics (location, presence of on-road marked bicycle lane and the presence of parked cars on the kerbside) and passing distance (defined as the lateral distance between the end of the bicycle handlebars and the passing motor vehicle).
Results: Sixty cyclists recorded 18,527 passing events over 422 trips. The median passing distance was 173 cm (Q1: 137 cm, Q3: 224 cm) and 1085 (5.9%) passing events were less than 100 cm. Relative to sedans, 4WDs had a reduced mean passing distance of 15 cm (Q1: 12 cm, Q3: 17 cm) and buses had a reduced mean passing distance of 28 cm (Q1: 16 cm, Q3: 40 cm). Relative to passing events that occurred on roads without a marked bicycle lane and without parked cars, passing events on roads with a bike lane with no parked cars had a reduced mean passing distance of 27 cm (Q1: 25 cm, Q3: 29 cm), and passing events on roads with a bike lane and parked cars had a mean lower passing distance of 40 cm (Q1: 37 cm, Q3: 43 cm).
Conclusions: One in every 17 passing events was a close (<100 cm) passing event. We identified that on-road bicycle lanes and parked cars reduced passing distance. These data can be used to inform the selection and design of cycling-related infrastructure and road use with the aim of improving safety for cyclists.
Bicycling at night is dangerous, with vehicle passing distances being a key concern, given that the main cause of night-time bicycling fatalities is from motorists hitting bicyclists from behind. However, little is known about vehicle passing distances at night or how they are affected by bicyclist visibility. This study assessed the impact of different bicyclist visibility configurations on vehicle passing distances at night-time. Fourteen licenced drivers with normal vision (age 24.2 ± 3.7 years) drove an experimental vehicle with low-beam headlights around a 1-km section of a closed-road circuit at night. Each lap involved passing two bicyclists displaying one of four visibility configurations: Control (red rear-facing light and reflector), Handlebars (control plus two red rear-facing lights on each handlebar), Helmet (control plus one red rear-facing light on the helmet), and Leg Retro-reflectors (control plus retro-reflective strips positioned on the knees and ankles). Participants were instructed to pass each bicyclist at a distance of 1-metre at a speed no greater than 50 km/hr, consistent with Queensland’s Minimum Passing Distance rule. Participants completed eight laps, two for each configuration, in a randomised sequence. Passing distance was measured using a vehicle-mounted ultra-sonic sensor (ToughSonic14; Senix). Following each lap, participants rated the difficulty level in judging the 1-metre passing distance, as well as their estimated passing distance. Visibility configuration significantly affected passing distance (p = 0.001), with wider passing distances for the Handlebar configuration (1.54 ± 0.62 m), followed by the Helmet (1.51 ± 0.63 m), Leg Retro-reflectors (1.50 ± 0.62 m) which were all significantly greater than the Control (1.42 ± 0.57 m), but not significantly different from each other. There was also a significant effect of visibility configuration on difficulty rating (p = 0.035), with the Control rated as the most difficult, followed by Helmet, Handlebars and Leg Retro-reflectors. Overall, additional visibility aids resulted in wider vehicle passing distances, likely due to enhanced visual cues for drivers. The findings suggest that bicyclists should incorporate additional visibility aids to encourage safer passing distances of vehicles at night-time.
To promote non-motorised travel, many travel behaviour studies acknowledge the importance of the built environment to modal choice, for example with its density or mix of uses. From a mobility design theory perspective, however, objects and environments affect human perceptions, assessments and behaviour in at least three different ways: by their practical, aesthetic and emblematic functions. This review of existing evidence will argue that travel behaviour research has so far mainly focused on the practical function of the built environment. For that purpose, we systematically identified 56 relevant studies on the impacts of the built environment on non-motorised travel behaviour in the Web of Science database. The focus of research on the practical design function primary involves land use distribution, street network connectivity and the presence of walking and cycling facilities. Only a small number of papers address the aesthetic and emblematic functions. These show that the perceived attractiveness of an environment and evoked feelings of traffic safety increase the likelihood of walking and cycling. However, from a mobility design perspective, the results of the review indicate a gap regarding comprehensive research on the effects of the aesthetic and emblematic functions of the built environment. Further research involving these functions might contribute to a better understanding of how to promote non-motorised travel more effectively. Moreover, limitations related to survey techniques, regional distribution and the comparability of results were identified.
‘Hazard perception’ has become an integral part of novice driver education and training. Cyclists are often identified as one of many ‘hazards’ to look out for. We speculate that constituting cyclists as ‘hazards’, something that presents a danger or threat, may foster negative attitudes toward cyclists. Rather than accepting cyclists as ‘hazards’, our study examined the conditions that have made it possible to identify cyclists as ‘hazards’ in novice driver preparation. Informed by Michel Foucault's work on discursive practices, the analysis focused on the ‘road safety’ literature (1900–2017), the changing context in which road safety knowledge has been produced and the implications for the production of road space. This literature is important given the authority of scientific knowledge in western societies and its role in managing and governing populations. We found a shift in the middle of the twentieth century from drivers being identified as ‘hazards’ to drivers being identified as perceivers of ‘hazards’. At this time, researchers began studying drivers for their ability to recognise hazards: cyclists were routinely listed among the ‘hazards’ drivers should perceive. Out of 200 articles published on drivers' ‘hazard perception’ since the 1960s, one third categorised cyclists as ‘hazards’. Such research has informed the development and implementation of ‘hazard perception’ tests and, following Foucault, it participates in producing road space and shaping how drivers can think about themselves and other road users. While ‘scientific’ studies constitute cyclists as potential threats or sources of harm they lend authority to negative views of cyclists. We suggest ‘traffic participation’ as a more inclusive approach to driver education and training.
Electrically assisted bicycles (e-bikes) have become increasingly popular in the past decade. This review aimed to scope the literature to identify what is known about the frequency and duration of e-bike use, their impact on travel behaviour, the purposes for which e-bikes are used and factors associated with e-bike use. In addition, the review aimed to identify gaps in the literature and highlight future research priorities.
A scoping review of published and unpublished literature in any language. Relevant articles were identified through searching six databases, two grey literature platforms and reference lists. Searches were conducted until August 2019. Data were extracted using a standardised extraction form and descriptive and narrative results are provided.
Seventy-six studies met the inclusion criteria. The volume of research has increased since 2017 and primarily examines personal e-bike use, as opposed to e-bike share/rental schemes or organizational e-bike initiatives. The use of e-bikes increased the frequency and duration of cycling compared to conventional cycling and may help overcome barriers associated with conventional cycling. The uptake in e-cycling largely substitutes for conventional cycling or private car journeys, though the degree of substitution depends on the primary transport mode prior to e-bike acquisition. E-bikes are primarily used for utilitarian reasons, though older adults also engage in recreational e-cycling. Research priorities include quantitatively examining e-bike use, their impact on overall transport behaviour and identifying determinants of e-cycling to inform intervention and policy.
This review suggests that the personal use of e-bikes is associated with a reduction in motorized vehicle use, which has potential positive impacts on the environment and health. The impacts of e-bike share schemes and workplace initiatives are less well understood. Evidence describing the purposes for which e-bikes are used, and the factors associated with usage, are useful to inform e-cycling promotion policy.
Many cities are grappling with how to regulate new shared mobility modes, including dockless e-scooters and bikes (i.e., “micromobility”). Transportation planners in these cities are particularly concerned about micromobility parking regulations, which have implications for the safety and mobility of riders and the general public. In this research, we investigate the parking practices as well as the frequency and types of parking violations of three types of vehicles operating on city sidewalks and streets: e-scooters, bikes, and motor vehicles. We collected original data on 3666 e-scooters, bikes, motor vehicles, and sidewalk objects in Austin, TX, Portland, OR, San Francisco, CA, Santa Monica, CA, and Washington, DC, to examine micromobility and motor vehicle parking practices. We find that motor vehicles impede access far more (24.7%) than bikes (0.3%) and e-scooters (1.7%). Ride-hail and food delivery drivers disproportionately impede access. Motor vehicles often impeded other travelers' access when dropping off or picking up people or food while double parking, parking in “No Parking” areas, or blocking driveways. Our findings suggest that micromobility companies are just one of several technology-enabled transportation services that should motivate cities to rethink parking policies.
The Four Types of Cyclists is a widely adopted typology developed by Portland’s Bicycle Coordinator, Roger Geller. No Way No How, Interested but Concerned, Enthused and Confident, and Strong and Fearless have become ubiquitous in academic literature and practice. However, the classification was subjectively developed and contains several known contradictions. This research aims to develop a data-driven typology using near-identical explanatory variables to those of the Four Types of Cyclists. The objective is to develop a typology with a similar functional purpose, but derived using statistical methods. An online survey was distributed to a panel of Edmonton, Canada, residents to this effect, and the use of video clips rather than descriptions is tested as a means to assess comfort on different types of cycling infrastructure. Cluster Correspondence Analysis is used to carry out the segmentations, including variables of comfort, cycling intent, and cycling in the previous summer. The survey sample tends to segment into three categories, as opposed to the four suggested by Geller: Uncomfortable or Uninterested, Cautious Majority, and Very Comfortable Cyclists. The Four Types of Cyclists typology is also shown to generate heterogeneous comfort patterns within each cyclist type, a limitation our empirically-derived segmentations overcome.
Over 10 years at 8 major intersections in Cambridge, MA, the number of total cyclists increased by 171%. Over the same period, the percentage of cyclists running red lights at those same intersections decreased by 69% largely due to improved cycling infrastructure.
Numerous studies – mainly since 2010 – have found that the chosen travel mode is related with how satisfied people are with their performed trips. A consensus has been found in that active travel results in the highest levels of satisfaction, while public transport users are usually least satisfied with their trips. However, evidence of why the use of various modes results in different levels of travel satisfaction is currently lacking. In this conceptual paper, I argue that the effect of travel mode on travel satisfaction might be overestimated, and that it is not so much the travel mode itself that affects satisfaction with travel, but whether the chosen travel mode is consistent with attitudes towards that mode. Furthermore, travel satisfaction might affect travel mode choice and travel attitudes more than vice versa. In this paper a new model is proposed reshaping the links between travel satisfaction, travel attitudes and travel mode choice. I underpin the suggested relationships with travel behaviour literature and psychological theories, draw parallels with (transport-related) residential self-selection, and reflect on the difficulties and possibilities of measuring this model. Finally, I focus on the implications of the proposed model on travel behaviour research.
Labeling or categorizing cyclists has been occurring for over a century for a variety of purposes. This paper aimed to test a typology developed for the city of Portland that includes four categories: Strong and the Fearless, Enthused and Confident, Interested but Concerned, and No Way No How. Unlike several other typologies, this one is intended to apply to all adults, regardless of their current cycling behavior. Our analysis used a random phone survey (n=908) of adults in the Portland region that included both land-line and mobile phone numbers; data were weighted to better reflect the population. Adults were put into the four types based primarily upon their stated level of comfort cycling on a variety of facility types, their interest in cycling more for transportation, and their physical ability to bicycle. Nearly all of the sampled population fit clearly into one of the four categories. A majority (56%) of the region’s population fit in the Interested but Concerned category – thought to be the key target market for increasing cycling for transportation. The analysis indicates that reducing traffic speeds and increasing separation between bicycles and motor vehicles, such as through cycle tracks, may increase levels of comfort and cycling rates. Women and older adults are underrepresented among the more confident adults and those who currently cycle for transportation.
To understand the makeup of a population in terms of how people view bicycling can help in planning bicycle facilities and programs. Roger Geller, bicycle coordinator for the City of Portland, Oregon, proposed a typology that characterized people as one of four types—strong and fearless, enthused and confident, interested but concerned, and no way, no how—with respect to their attitudes toward bicycling. The research presented here sought to find out how applicable the typology was nationally and explored motivating factors, barriers, and the appeal of various bicycle facility types for each type of cyclist or potential cyclist. This study followed up on an earlier study that tested Geller’s typology with Portland data. In this new study, a sample involved 3,000 adults who lived in the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. On the basis of respondents’ (a) stated level of comfort when they bicycled in different environments, (b) their interest in bicycling, and (c) their recent behavior, the study estimated that about one-third of adults were in the no way, no how group, and about half were in the interested but concerned group. The distribution was similar to that of the earlier findings for Portland. Several demographic differences emerged, with women less likely to be enthusiastic and confident or to be interested but concerned. Few differences appeared in whether respondents had ridden a bike at all in the past 30 days. Differences emerged as to where they bicycled and how often. The interested but concerned group was least likely to ride for transportation and rode less frequently. Barriers included not having a bicycle to ride; needing a vehicle for work, school, or other reasons; destinations too far to reach by bicycle; too few bike lanes or trails; and traffic.
Article on a new bike lane in Edmonton, Alberta.
According to the study, bicyclists were in compliance with traffic laws 88 percent of the time during the day and 87 percent of the time at night. The observed compliance rate for drivers who interacted with participants was slightly lower, at 85 percent during the day.
There is extensive literature into the mechanisms of injury in traffic crashes involving vulnerable road users (VRUs), but little research into the social or psychological factors in causation in these crash types. Attitudes and emotional associations can affect how people attend to objects in their visual environment and physical approach/avoidance responses, but few studies have extended these approaches into the road safety domain. Existing driving simulator studies of driver-bicyclist interactions have focused on driver behavior but not underlying attitudes and their effect on safety-related behaviors.
This research explored the impact of implicit and explicit attitudes on drivers' behavior in interactions with bicyclists. In a driving simulator, various objective measures of safety (e.g., speed, passing distance, crash occurrence) were collected in an overtaking scenario. Participants' self-reported attitudes about driving and bicyclists were collected via survey instrument, along with an online test of subconscious attitudes called an Implicit Association Test, developed to examine preference between drivers and bicyclists.
Importantly, this study examined not only distance, but duration and speed during overtaking. Results demonstrate that conscious attitudes affect how quickly and closely drivers overtake bicyclists. Participants who hold negative attitudes about bicyclists as a legitimate road user group passed significantly faster, while people with concerns about their knowledge or judgment about overtaking a bicyclist passed further and more slowly. Drivers self-identification as a bicyclist predicted higher passing speeds, while respondents who bicycle weekly drove closer but more slowly to the simulated bicyclist. These behaviors did not significantly differ based on the measure of implicit attitudes. The results of this study provide potential avenues for infrastructure and education interventions to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety. Additionally, pairing driving simulator behavior with attitudinal measures represents a significant methodological contribution.
Between cities and regions, not only cycling levels differ, but also the reactions of cyclists to adverse weather conditions. Using data from 122 automated bicycle counting stations in 30 German cities, and a composite index of adverse weather conditions that consists of air temperature, precipitation, wind speed, relative humidity, and cloud coverage, we calculate city-specific weather elasticities of the level of utilitarian cycling. The results show that these weather elasticities vary significantly between cities. Our next step is to analyze various determinants of weather elasticities, which reveals that the share of young inhabitants and the density of the cycle network have a positive impact on weather resilience. Based on the notion that resilience to adverse weather conditions reflects a revealed part of a city's bicycle culture, the weather elasticities can be used to create a ranking of bicycle cities. This ranking is positively correlated with a ranking based on the modal share of cycling, as well as with other rankings based on stated preference surveys or external conditions such as infrastructure or cycling safety.
Transportation safety professionals strive to build a system on which no street user can be severally, or fatality, injured on. To accomplish such a safe system, it is necessary to effectively harness all the core protective opportunities provided by the system. For example, if we’re looking at bicycle safety we would want alert and compliant cyclists and other road users, to make trips using safe bicycles and safe vehicles, on safe street design with adequate separation from motorized traffic, all of which are governed by safe speeds, and supported by effective cyclist protection and the medical emergency system when needed. While many of these protective components are discussed in the academic and professional literature, the topic of safe speeds has always the subject of much debate outside of professional circles too. At the heart of the debate is the intuitive trade-off between speed and safety. This synthesis includes a set of white papers that jointly provide a review of research on this topic, with an emphasis on speed limit setting practices and future opportunities to set safer speed limits and improve safety.
Active transport, including cycling, is promoted as an effective way of increasing children’s physical activity and health. Parents can support children’s riding by riding with them and it is important to address relevant safety issues. Little is known about parents’ experience of safety-relevant aspects of riding with children. Participants in the Safer Cycling Study in New South Wales, Australia, who reported that they had ridden with children in the last 12 months were questioned about how they ride with children, and their experience of safety issues and crashes. Among the 187 respondents who had ridden with children on their bicycle, the most common form of carrier was a rear-mounted seat (48%) followed by a trailer (29%). Many respondents (79%) identified risks specific to riding carrying children, including those linked with specific carrier types and with use of footpaths. Most (92%) indicated that they change their behaviour when carrying a child on their bicycle; for example, riding more slowly, more carefully, and away from roads. Among crashes with a child on the bicycle, most were falls. Among the 345 participants who had ridden to accompany a child on a bicycle, approximately three quarters identified risks specific to accompanying children, such as managing the child’s limited skill, awareness and predictability. Ninety-seven percent reported behavioural changes including positioning themselves as a barrier for their child and caution crossing roads. Findings suggest strategies to support parents in riding safely with children.
A major challenge in the development of new cycling infrastructure is the design of intersections that are safe, appropriately used, and inclusive. In this paper we study how cyclists interact with existing street design at intersections in Barcelona. We observed rule compliance (n = 5,063) and desire lines (n = 5,082) at six intersections over 12 weekdays. We find that 78.9% of cyclists comply with intersection rules. Rule incompliance is associated with the gender of the cyclists, the directionality of the bike lanes that intersect, traffic signals, and performing a turn. Our analysis of desire lines through the intersections illustrate that incompliant behavior is driven by a need for uninterrupted travel, and highlight systemic and design features that contribute to incompliance. We suggest ways to improve intersection design and safety: i) prioritize unidirectional bike lanes; ii) optimize traffic lights, and; iii) anticipate cyclists’ desired trajectories when designing new cycling infrastructure.
The Geller typology, which categorizes the population into four types of bicyclists (strong and fearless, enthused and confident, interested but concerned, and no way no how) has gained considerable popularity amongst researchers and planners. One large U.S. study used a survey-derived approach to categorize respondents into Geller’s typology, and found the majority of Americans were “interested but concerned”. While the U.S. findings are widely cited in planning documents, there has yet to be an assessment as to whether this indirect survey-derived categorization into Geller’s typology corresponds with how bicyclists perceive themselves. Using a mixed methods approach, we explored the Geller typology from the view of bicyclists themselves. Our specific objectives were to assess whether the survey-derived categorization method aligned with bicyclists’ perceptions, and to also examine bicyclists’ interpretations of Geller’s typology. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of bicyclists (n = 281) and interviews with a subset of participants (n = 25). According to the survey-derived categorization, the distribution of the sample (n = 25) was: 4% strong and fearless, 12% enthused and confident, and 84% interested but concerned. In the interviews we learned there was only a match between survey-derived and self-perceived bicyclist type for seven of twenty-five (28%) participants. When asked, participants were more likely to categorize themselves to strong and fearless (24% overall) or enthused and confident (52% overall). Our findings suggest that the category titles are intuitive, however, the survey-derived categorization does not necessarily match with how bicyclists perceive themselves. This suggests that, at least for those who currently bicycle, a direct approach of asking people which type of bicyclist they identify with may be preferable.
Cycling on the pavement is commonly seen in urban environments despite often being prohibited. This study explores this practice by analysing cycling on pavements in the wider socio-technical context in which it occurs. Using data from two field studies and one questionnaire study, as well as applying a Social Practice Theory (SPT) based analytical approach, the study explores the frequency of cycling on the pavement. The results show that riding on the pavement is common among cyclists. Three main configurations of meaning, material and competence constitutes this practice which is summarised as follows: avoiding the space of the car, increasing smoothness of the ride and unclear infrastructure design. Cycling on the pavement can be regarded as a way of managing safety and risk, seeking more efficient and comfortable paths of travel, as well as the outcome of perceiving the infrastructure as ambiguous. Overall, the study argues that cycling on the pavement is a consequence of skewed power relations between different modes of transport, as well as policies, urban planning and infrastructure not harmonising with demands for safe and smooth travel by cyclists.
Introduction: This paper investigates whether motor-vehicle driver behavior changes when there are more bicycles on the road. Method: Data on trips on a rapidly expanding public bike share scheme in Chicago are combined with speed violations captured by a network of 79 cameras. Using weekly data from July 2014 to December 2016, violations at 26 sites where there was a considerable increase in bicycle traffic are compared with a control group of 53 locations where rental bicycles are not available. Results: An increase in rental bicycle usage is statistically related to a reduction in the number of speeding violations, with an estimated elasticity of −0.04.
This paper examines the impact of the perception of bicycle infrastructure on the choice of the bicycle as a feeder mode to access train stations in the Netherlands. The latent factors act in addition to traditional travel time and cost variables, describing the quality of cycling infrastructure at and around railway stations. The analysis is based on a large scale revealed and stated preference survey in the wider metropolitan area of The Hague and Rotterdam (n = 1524). Hybrid choice models for access feeder mode choice were estimated, where the attitude toward cycling to affected the users’ perception of the cycling infrastructure, which in turn affected the utility of cycling. The results show that both the quality of cycling infrastructure and latent factors, describing the perceived quality of cycling infrastructure, station connectivity and the general attitude toward cycling, have a significant impact on cycling to the station. The effect of the travel time and cost characteristics on access mode choice significantly changes depending on the perception of the quality of the infrastructure, as well as the attitude toward cycling and frequency of train use. Bicycle parking cost and distance to the platform is the most critical observed factor influencing bicycle access choice to the train stations.
Some trips are better than others, and more and more studies find that active travel (walking and cycling) is more satisfying than motorized forms of travel (using the car or public transport). Why is this the case? Using data on travel satisfaction from 4134 commutes to a large University campus in Dublin, Ireland, this paper replicates the differences in travel satisfaction between active and motorized travel. We attribute these differences in large part to the duration of the trip. Subjective trip characteristics, such as safety and convenience, also play important roles. The trip duration explains rush-hour effects as well as why people starting from less affluent and more difficult-to-reach places are less satisfied with their trips. Longer-term policy options suggested by these results include infrastructure developments and spatial development strategies. A shorter-term initiative would be to delay university schedules in the morning to avoid low travel satisfaction during the slow rush-hour period and simultaneously ease pressure on the transport network at peak times.
Bicycle wrong way riding (WWR) is a dangerous and often neglected behavior that engenders threats to traffic safety. Owing to the lack of exposure data, the detection of WWR and its relationship with the built environment (BE) factors remain unclear. Accordingly, this study fills the research gaps by proposing a WWR detection framework based on bike-sharing trajectories collected from Chengdu, China. Moreover, this study adopts Negative Binomial-based Additive Decision Tree to investigate the impacts of built environment on WWR frequencies. Results reveal that (1) WWR distribution is unaffected by different periods in a day; (2) road length is more influential than road level and road direction in WWR occurrence; (3) company, bus stop, subway station, residence, and catering facility are primary contributors affecting WWR behavior during peak hours, whereas education becomes an emerging influential variable during nonpeak hours; and most importantly, (4) these variables clearly present non-linear effects on the WWR frequencies. Therefore, geographically differentiated policies should be adopted for bicycle safety improvement.
This study aimed to reveal the potential relationship between personal characteristics of e-bike riders and illegal occupation of motor vehicle lane. To this end, a questionnaire survey was conducted and 350 valid copies of responses were retrieved from the e-bike riders. Depending on the number of motor vehicle lanes occupied, the risky behavior of illegal occupation was divided into four intervals: intervals A, B, C, and D. The disaggregate theory has high adaptability to the analysis of individual traffic behavior. In this study, the multinomial logit model was used, and eight personal characteristics of e-bike riders were selected. The aforementioned four intervals were the four selection limbs, and a measurement model calculating the influence of personal characteristics on the behavior of illegal occupation was built. The theory of elasticity was employed to analyze the sensitivity degree of each influence factor. The results showed that the absolute values of elasticity of all tested influence factors, including age, educational level, and eye vision, were less than 1.000. However, on the four intervals, the elasticity of riders’ temperament was 1.203, 1.656, 1.554, and 1.355, respectively, and elasticity of riding proficiency was 2.782, 3.883, 3.453, and 2.932, respectively.
Nearly everyone has jaywalked, rolled through a stop sign, or driven a few miles per hour over the speed limit, but most such offenses face no legal consequences. Society also tends to see these relatively minor infractions that almost all people make—though they are unmistakably illegal—as normal and even rational. Bicyclists who break the law, however, seem to attract a higher level of scorn and scrutiny. While the academic literature has exhaustively covered unlawful driving behaviors, there remains little research on bicyclists who break the rules of the road. This paper examines rule-breaking bicyclists and the factors associated with such behaviors. We also explore the question: are bicyclists making rational, albeit illegal, choices—similar to most drivers and pedestrians—or are bicyclists reckless and dangerous? Because it’s proven effective for reaching hard-to-reach populations, we employed a snowball-sampling framework and an online, scenario-based survey completed by nearly 18,000 respondents. Via multi-level statistical analyses, our results suggest that younger people and males tend to exhibit higher levels of illegal bicycling behavior, but even when combining high-risk factors, the overwhelming majority of bicyclists are not reckless. Controlling for the context and social norms of the city where one lives tends to outweigh individual bicyclist characteristics such as race/ethnicity and income. Unlawful drivers and pedestrians tend to rationalize their behaviors as time saving; bicyclists similarly rationalize their illegal behaviors but were more inclined to cite increasing their own personal safety and/or saving energy. Most bicyclists can generally be described as rational individuals trying to function safely and efficiently given the context and norms of where they live and the transportation system put in front of them.
Improved bicycle infrastructure has become increasingly common in the United States as cities seek to attract new riders, including the demographic who do not feel comfortable riding with motor vehicle traffic. A key tool in designing low-stress networks is the use of separated or protected bicycle lanes, and intersections are the critical links. This paper presents an analysis of the perceived level of comfort of current and potential bicyclists from 277 survey respondents who rated 26 first-person video clips of a bicyclist riding through mixing zones, lateral shifts, bend-in, bend-out, and protected intersection designs. A total of 7,166 ratings were obtained from surveys conducted at four locations in Oregon, Minnesota, and Maryland, including urban and suburban locations. Survey respondents were categorized into four groups based on their response to attitudes and bicycling behavior by cluster analysis. Descriptive analysis and regression modeling results find that designs that minimize interactions with motor vehicles, such as fully separated signal phases and protected intersections, are rated as most comfortable (72% of respondents rated them as very comfortable or somewhat comfortable). Mean comfort drops off significantly for other designs and interactions with turning vehicles result in lower comfort ratings though there are differences for each design. Importantly, as the exposure distance, measured as the distance a person on a bicycle is exposed to traffic, increases the comfort decreases.
The results revealed possible trade-offs made while adapting, mainly in relation to rule-following. No differences in adaptive behaviour between people who mostly drive and people who mostly cycle were found. The current situational demands influence both the need to adapt and the adaptation carried out. A more complex traffic environment led to increased information intake, measured by glance behaviour.
The relevance of cycling as a mode of transportation is increasingly being recognized in many cities around the world, and the city of Medellin (Colombia) is no exception. To better understand cycling travel behavior in Medellin, we perform a multiple regression to analyze the importance of route characteristics in explaining cycling travel distance. We control for socioeconomic and built environment variables at the origin and destination. Our results reveal that the effects of the socio-economic and built environment characteristics at the origin and destination are modest or statistically insignificant in explaining travel distance. However, the variables that characterize the built and natural environment along the route are significant and appreciably improve the explanatory power of the baseline econometric model. An analysis of interacting effects shows that the interaction between the dedicated infrastructure along the route and the degree of deviation from direct routes has a relevant effect on explaining travel distance. The findings of this work are useful for designing cycling policy and developing more usable cycling infrastructure.
Objective: To determine whether inattentional blindness (IB) can be used to understand the psychological mechanisms around looked-but-failed-to-see (LBFTS) crashes involving motorcycles Background: IB occurs when an observer looks directly at an object yet fails to see it, thus LBFTS crashes may be a real-world example of IB. The study tests a perceptual cycle model in which motorcycles are detected less frequently because they fall lower on the attentional hierarchy for driving. Method: A driving-related IB task with photographs of driving situations investigated whether an additional stimulus, a taxi or motorcycle, would be more likely to be missed by participants. In Experiments 2 and 3, the “threat value” of objects in the scene were varied to determine the degree to which this influences participants’ tendency to notice motorcycles. Results: Participants were twice as likely to miss a motorcycle compared with a taxi. Moreover, participants reported that they would expect to miss a motorcycle on the road. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants modulated their attention to accommodate motorcycles when necessary, suggesting that motorcycles are afforded the lowest level of attentional bandwidth. Conclusion: Inattentional blindness forms a good psychological framework for understanding LBFTS crashes, particularly in the context of attentional set, such that LBFTS crashes occur because motorcycles do not feature strongly in a typical driver’s attentional set for driving. Application: The findings here are important because LBFTS crashes can be reduced if we can change the expectations of road users around the presence of motorcycles on the road.
Adolescents engage in more risky behaviors than other age groups, including riding a bicycle without a helmet. To address helmet use, public health professionals encourage it, even passing laws requiring helmet use. But these approaches may have unintended consequences, potentially pushing more risk-prone adolescents away from riding a bike and into cars. This mode shift could lead to worse safety outcomes, not just for teens but for society in general, as a risk-prone teen driver would be more dangerous to themselves and society behind the wheel of a car than when riding a bicycle. This research is a first-step in addressing the complicated issues around helmet promotion by asking the question: are risky non-bicycling behaviors associated with bicycling and wearing a helmet while bicycling among adolescents? We test correlations between non-bicycling risk-taking behaviors (such as drug and alcohol use), bicycling, and bicycle helmet use in a generalizable sample of US adolescents.
Data comes from a nationally-representative sample of 15,624 US high school students collected in 2015. Findings from a multinomial logistic regression model and analysis of variance identify a sample population consisting of at least three distinct groups: i) a non-bicycle-riding group; ii) one bicycle-riding group that tends not to wear a helmet and reports increased risky non-bicycling behaviors; and iii) another bicycle-riding group that tends to wear a helmet and engages in few risky non-bicycling behaviors. Furthermore, we do not find evidence for helmet-wearing adolescents who are also risk-takers, nor do we find evidence for non-risk-taking adolescents that do not wear helmets. The group that does not bicycle is generally older than the bicycle riding groups and is characterized by more risky non-riding behaviors than the helmet wearing group (but fewer risky behaviors than the group that bicycles but does not wear a helmet). Our results indicate that individual behavioral characteristics require increased attention in helmet use and bicycle safety research.
The purpose of the present study was to investigate specifically whether psycho-attitudinal factors could differ for people with different cycling frequency levels and to quantify the determinants influencing the propensity to cycle. To perform our analysis, we developed a hybrid choice modeling approach with a generalized ordered probit choice kernel, using the information collected in 2016 for 2128 individuals in two mid-size urban areas in Sardinia (Italy). Our results indicate that the latent variables Perception of cycling benefits, Perception of cycling comfort and Perceived importance of bike infrastructure positively influence the propensity to cycle, supporting the idea of a relationship between attitudes and cycling frequency. In addition, the model shows a link between different socio-demographic variables (gender, age, Body Mass Index, education level, number of cars per household, number of household members), built environment characteristics and bike usage. Computation of the pseudo-elasticity effects indicates that strategies focusing only on the physical part of the problem, such as the expansion and improvement of proper infrastructure, might not be sufficient to encourage bike use. At the same time our findings stress the importance of considering people’s psychological characteristics when implementing policies aimed at promoting cycling. This can be helpful for identifying, depending on the population segment that is targeted, the most appropriate advertising/information strategy for convincing people to cycle, as well as the most effective marketing messages.
Speeding-related crashes continue to be a serious problem in the United States and attempts to address this problem through a variety of approaches have not led to a substantial reduction in speed-related fatalities. A better understanding of speeding behavior is needed to inform the development of new speeding countermeasures. To address this issue, researchers conducted an in-depth investigation of driver speeding behavior using SHRP2 NDS data, which included numerous observations across various situations, environments, and driver characteristics. The research activities encompassed several steps. Sampling and data processing activities were conducted to obtain a set of trips that was suitable for examining multiple aspects of speeding. Key measures were then extracted from the trip data, including: (a) periods in which drivers had an opportunity to speed (which served as an exposure measure), and (b) speeding episodes within those periods. Using these data elements, situational and driver-specific predictors of speeding were examined using descriptive statistics and regression analyses. In addition, speeding episodes were used to identify different types of speeding and to develop a typology of speeders. Five types of speeders were identified, and these groups differed in terms of their aggregate speeding behavior, demographic characteristics, and attitudes about speeding and risk taking.
Driving 10 mph above the PSL was relatively common, and 99.8% of drivers had at least one occurrence of this within their trip sample, yielding an average of 2.75 SEs per trip.
Several studies have focused on the perceived risk of bicycle crashes (irrespective of crash types) and concluded that cycling near high volumes of motor vehicles deters people from cycling. The perceived risk of bicycle crash types (with or without motor vehicles) has not yet been studied. Cyclists, both in countries with low and high levels of cycling participation, are substantially more likely to sustain severe injuries in single-bicycle crashes than in bicycle-motor vehicle crashes. This questionnaire study sets out to compare which bicycle crash types are perceived to cause most hospitalizations among cyclists. The study comprised cyclists over 55 years in the Netherlands, and over 40 years in the Belgian regions of Flanders (a region with high cycling participation), Brussels and Wallonia (regions with low cycling participation). The majority of cyclists (60%) perceive bicycle-motor vehicle crashes cause most hospitalizations among cyclists. This percentage is greatest in the areas of Brussels and Wallonia and lowest in the Netherlands. Cyclists who were involved in a bicycle-motor vehicle crash themselves are more likely to regard this crash type as the most common cause of hospitalizations among cyclists, while cyclists over 60 years who were involved in a crash without a motor vehicle are more likely to perceive that crash type as the most common cause. The smaller perception bias in the study areas with higher cycling participation – particularly the Netherlands and to a somewhat lesser degree Flanders – is probably due to bicycle infrastructure being more separated from high-speed motor traffic, leaving cyclists less exposed. The outcomes show that cyclists underestimate the likelihood of severe injuries due to single-bicycle crashes. New interventions should raise the awareness of the risk of single-bicycle crashes and provide solutions to avoid such crashes.
Bike ridership jumped more than 413 percent after Seattle upgraded a key corridor from a mere painted bike lane into a beefier protected version, a city official revealed on Thursday.
To understand the impact of daily travel on personal and so cietal well-being, researchers are developing more sophisticated quantitative measures of travel satisfaction. Metrics related to Subjective Well-Being (SWB), defined as an evaluation of one׳s happiness or life satisfaction, hold promise for better evaluating health impacts of transportation and land-use policies. This article examines commute well-being, a multi-item measure of how one feels about the commute to work, and its associated factors. The measure was adapted from the Satisfaction with Travel Scale originated by Ettema et al. (2010). Data were collected from a web-based survey of workers (n=828) in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. with four modal groups: walk, bicycle, transit and car users. With some modifications from previous research, this research confirms that the commute well-being scale reliably measures commute satisfaction. A multiple linear regression model shows that along with travel mode, traffic congestion, travel time, income, general health, attitudes about travel, job satisfaction and residential satisfaction also play important individual roles in shaping commute well-being. Results in this study add further evidence that people who bike and walk to work are happier with their commutes and are relatively unaffected by traffic congestion compared to bus and car commuters. The findings suggest opportunities for policymakers to more effectively market active transportation policies.
Anger is a common behaviour exhibited by road users when one’s goals are perceived to have been blocked by another. Recent research has demonstrated that, generally, cyclists tend to deal with anger in constructive ways. However, when anger does manifest, it can result in behaviours that increase their crash risk. Amongst motor vehicle drivers, mindfulness levels have been associated with less anger and appear to mediate anger and associated aggression. The current study sought to understand whether mindfulness has similar associations with anger and aggression in a sample of cyclists. A total of 583 cyclists (males = 68 %) completed an online questionnaire that sought information on their levels of mindfulness, current mindfulness practices and tendencies for anger and aggression while cycling. The relationships between these were then examined using structural equation modelling. The results showed that cyclists with higher mindfulness levels tended to report less anger across a range of situations (e.g., interactions with pedestrians, cyclists, motor vehicle drivers and police). Both direct and indirect (through anger) relationships were found between mindfulness and aggression, again showing that more mindful cyclists tended to engage in less frequent aggression. These findings align with recent research investigating this relationship amongst motor vehicle drivers and suggest that mindfulness may be a promising strategy to reduce or avoid anger and aggression in cyclists.
To date, electric bikers’ (e-bikers’) red-light running (RLR) behavior is often viewed as one of the main contributors to e-bike-related accidents, especially for traffic scenarios with high e-bike ridership. In this paper, we aim to understand e-bikers’ RLR behavior based on structural equation modeling. Specifically, the predictive utility of the theory of planned behavior (TPB), prototype willingness model (PWM), and their combined form, TPB-PWM model, is used to analyze e-bikers’ RLR behavior, and a comparison analysis is made. The analyses of the three modeling approaches are based on the survey data collected from two online questionnaires, where more than 1,035 participant-completed questionnaires are received. The main findings in this paper are as follows: (i) Both PWM and TPB-PWM models could work better in characterizing e-bikers’ RLR behavior than the TPB model. The former two models explain more than 80% (81.3% and 81.4%, respectively) of the variance in e-bikers’ RLR behavior, which is remarkably higher than that of the TPB model (only 74.3%). (ii) It is also revealed that RLR willingness contributes more on influencing the RLR behavior than RLR intention, which implies that such behavior is dominated by social reactive decision-making rather than the reasoned one. (iii) Among the examined psychological factors, attitude, perceived behavioral control, past behavior, prototype perceptions (favorability and similarity), RLR intention, and RLR willingness were the crucial predictors of e-bikers’ RLR behavior. Our findings also support designing of more effective behavior-change interventions to better target e-bikers’ RLR behavior by considering the influence of the identified psychological factors.
Data on percentage of drivers speeding at different cameras in Toronto.
Severe and even fatal accidents between cyclists and motor vehicles commonly occur at intersections. Many of these accidents occur with right-turning vehicles, with drivers not observing an adjacent cyclist. Few structured investigations exist regarding the interaction between cyclist and motor vehicle, and factors in need of study are how infrastructure and vehicle properties affect human decision-making and cycling behaviour. Therefore, a bicycle simulator study was performed, where vehicle type, presence of lane markings and lane width were systematically varied in a scenario with a cyclist approaching a vehicle from behind, at a signalized city intersection. 33 participants cycled through 8 intersection variants each. Data on cycling trajectories, stopping points and speed was coupled with survey data from the participants, and semantically categorized verbal responses to questions regarding strategy for choice of stopping point. Results show that all three factors (vehicle type, lane markings and available vehicle-adjacent space) significantly affects cyclists’ behaviour and conscious strategies. Participants were more cautious in the presence of a truck than a car, reflected in choice of position when cycling and stopping, and in explicit verbalisations regarding perilous aspects of the situation and their conscious and strategic choice of positioning. Available lateral space also affected stop positions and feeling of safety (expressed verbally). Presence of bicycle lane markings made the cyclists inclined to continue into the space to the right of the vehicle. This was revealed by their positioning and speed, and also apparent in the verbal expressions, especially the positive remarks on the situation and conditions. However, the perceived comfort with lane markings present was actually lower than when they were missing. Cyclist type (slow, moderate, or fast) matters with the self-reported faster cyclists being more prone to stop to the right than the slower one.
Although several papers have shown that bike ridership is affected by actual weather conditions, this is the first study to comprehensively investigate the impact of forecasted weather conditions on bike ridership. The results show that both actual and forecasted weather conditions can be used as useful explanatory variables for predicting bicycle usage. Even incorrect weather forecasts can impact on bike ridership, which underlines the importance of weather forecast effects for traffic planners; for example, forecasted rain can reduce bike traffic by 3.6% in periods that turn out to be rain-free. Additionally, a digital image-processing method is used to calculate the darkness of the cloud coverage displayed on weather forecast maps. The results imply that bike ridership is significantly smaller in regions with darker forecasted clouds. It is also shown that weather forecasts have a stronger impact on recreational bike traffic than on utilitarian traffic. Furthermore, various lagging and leading effects of rain forecasts are outlined. Morning rain forecasts can, for example, reduce bike ridership in midday and afternoon hours that were predicted to be rain-free. To derive these results, hourly bicycle counts from 188 automated counting stations in Germany are collected for the years 2017 and 2018. They are linked to actual weather data from Germany’s National Meteorological Service and with historical weather forecasts that are deduced from weather maps of Germany’s most-watched television news program. Log-linear and negative binomial regression models are then used to estimate the weather forecast effects.
To prevent single-bicycle crashes, this study is the first to evaluate effects of slanted kerbstones, edge lines, shoulder strips, and edge strips on cycling behaviour of cyclists 50 years. In Experiment 1, 32 participants cycled on a control path and paths with edge lines, slanted kerbstones, and three types of 0.5 m wide shoulder strips (with grey artificial grass, green artificial grass, or concrete street-print). In Experiment 2, 30 participants cycled a different route including a control path and paths with edge lines or 0.3 m white edge strips. Cyclists rode closer to the main cycle path’s edge in the shoulder strips conditions, although the presence of these strips resulted in a larger total distance to the verge compared to the control condition. Furthermore, cyclists cycled further from the verge in the edge strip condition than the control condition. Safety implications of the shoulder and edge strips are considered to be positive.
To promote the sustainable development and safety of bicycle traffic, survival analysis of the risk perception sensitivity of cyclists is proposed. The cumulative probability of survival serves as an index of risk perception sensitivity, and a Cox regression model is established. The proposed method is applied to middle school cyclists, and the factors of their risk perception are analyzed. Data are collected by questionnaire and traffic conflict survey and are quantified by factor analysis. The model results show that active and extroverted personality, negative peer influence, unsafe riding behavior intention, non-motor vehicle flow and speed, and a lack of separation facilities have negative correlations with risk perception sensitivity. Positive attitude towards traffic rules, good family education, heightened traffic safety awareness, motor vehicle flow and speed, pedestrian flow, and non-motorized lane width have positive correlations with risk perception sensitivity. The conflict type has no correlation with risk perception sensitivity. This study aims to improve the sensitivity of risk perception, prevent traffic conflicts and provide a theoretical basis for risk perception research on vulnerable traffic participants.