Macroscopic Characteristics of Bicycle Traffic Flow: A bird's-eye view of cycling

This dissertation studies the dynamics of bicycle traffic flow. The research focuses on busy situations such as bicycle queues at intersections and congestion upstream of a bottleneck. The cycling movements are analyzed on the aggregated scale in terms of density, speed and flow. Furthermore, cyclists are included in a traffic flow model by...

Influencing the queue configuration to increase bicycle jam density and discharge rate: An experimental study on a single path

Congestion in bicycle traffic is a daily occurrence at many urban intersections. It is known that a higher density in the queue leads to a higher discharge rate. In theory, higher jam densities than those currently observed in practice are feasible. This leads to our hypothesis that the delay at intersections can be further reduced when cyclists...

Capacity Gains of Splitting Cross-Traffic into Multiple Sub-Streams

Traffic flow might be limited by cross-traffic which has priority. A typical example of such a situation is a location where cyclists or pedestrians cross a stream of car traffic. Splitting the cross-traffic into two separate sub-streams (for instance left?right and right?left) can increase the capacity of the main stream. This is because it is...

How many cars in the city are too many?: Towards finding the optimal modal split for a multi-modal urban road network

Interactions among different modes or vehicle classes in urban road networks affect the network performance in different and complex ways. Thus, an answer to the question of “how many cars are too many for a city?” is not trivial. However, multi-modal macroscopic fundamental diagrams (MFD) offer a novel opportunity to answer this question. So...

A Macroscopic Flow Model for Mixed Bicycle–Car Traffic

Bicycles are gaining popularity as a mode of transport resulting in a mixed bicycle–car traffic situation on urban roads. Cyclists however, are hardly included in traffic flow models which complicates the design of safe and congestion-free traffic situations. This work introduces class-specific speed functions based on two variables, being space...

The Influence of Jam Density and Merging Cyclists on the Queue Discharge Rate

An increasing number of people use the bicycle for urban trips resulting in local congestion at intersections, especially during peak hours. Understanding the queue dynamics is key to find the correct measures that can reduce the delays for cyclists without affecting other traffic modes. To this end, the discharge process of bicycle queues is...

Voronoi densities for bicylists: adaptation for finite object size and speed

Density is one of the most relevant variables in a traffic flow description. For objects in 2 dimensions, density can be determined by the space that is allocated to each of the objects. This paper introduces a new way of computing the space available for a bicyclist, accounting for speed and accounting for the non-zero size of a bicycle. This...

Capacity, Capacity Drop and Relation of Capacity to the Path Width in Bicycle Traffic

Bicycle usage is encouraged in many cities because of its health and environmental benefits. As a result, bicycle traffic increases which leads to questions on the requirements of bicycle infrastructure. Design guidelines are available but the scientific substantiation is limited. This research contributes to understanding bicycle traffic flow...

Large-Scale Bicycle Flow Experiment: Setup and Implementation

Cycling research at the operational behavioral level is limited, mainly because of the lack of empirical data. To overcome this data shortage, we performed a controlled, large-scale cycling experiment in the Netherlands. In this paper we describe the methodology for setting up and implementing such an experiment, from the motivation of its...

A Macroscopic Flow Model for Mixed Traffic using Two-Dimensional Speed Functions

Traffic in urban environments often share the same infrastructure and in places with high cyclist volumes, such as in The Netherlands, the roads are used simultaneously by cyclists and cars. This creates a mixed traffic situation in which both modes can be the fastest moving one, depending on the traffic state. In low demand situations, cars...

Bicycle Queue Dynamics: Influence of Queue Density and Merging Cyclists on Discharge Rate at an Intersection

In many countries, an increasing number of people are using the bicycle for urban trips. The increased bicycle flow sometimes creates local congestion at intersections and demands better bicycle traffic management. To provide policy<br/>makers with models and advice on how to prevent congestion, an increased understanding of queue dynamics is...

A Macroscopic Flow Model for Mixed Bicycle-Car Traffic