Case Study Analysis of Pedestrian and Bicycle Data Collection in U.S. Communities

Prior research has focused on estimating the heath, air quality, safety, and congestion relief benefits of bicycling facilities. Bicycling facilities also provide bicyclists with a more enjoyable and safer feeling experience. An estimate of the total welfare change, or net benefits, associated with providing improved bicycle facilities should therefore include the value of these additional benefits. This study estimates welfare change as willingness to pay (WTP) for improvements in bicycling facilities using several different methods to value travel time. Three types of improvements are considered: cycle tracks, bicycle lanes, and street lighting. A stated preference survey asked respondents to choose between different levels of bicycle facility improvements and travel time, and also asked respondents for their average and marginal wage rates. Cycle tracks were valued the most, followed by street lighting and bicycle lanes. Greater cycling experience was associated with lower WPT, although increas...

This project broadened course offerings on bicycle and pedestrian transportation by redesigning and expanding an existing, three credit undergraduate/graduate course into a five-credit course that includes an applied lab component. The course was open to graduate and undergraduate students in planning and engineering programs. The PI (Lynn Weigand, Ph.D., adjunct faculty) and Mia Birk, adjunct faculty course instructor, developed the course with the following learning objectives: learn principles of bicycle and pedestrian facility design; understand integration of bicycle and pedestrian facilities within the right-of-way; understand basic transportation research and data collection methods; and apply course content through project work. The lecture course was taught by the PI and the lab was taught by adjunct faculty member Mia Birk. The new course was developed and taught as a project-based course that focused on improving bicycle and pedestrian connects to the Portland State University campus. Students worked in teams to develop a problem statement, identify project stakeholders, recommend a public involvement process, develop evaluation criteria and alternative solutions, evaluate alternatives and select a preferred alternative, and create a package of recommendations in the form of a grant application, including cost estimates and implementation strategies. The course received excellent reviews from the students, who felt it was useful to apply the principles of bicycle and pedestrian design and planning to a real project environment. The resulting curriculum expands the course content on bicycle and pedestrian travel, includes more academic literature and research, and provides the opportunity for students to participate in project-based learning. It provides a model for future course expansion on related transportation planning and policy topics. In addition, the curriculum can be shared and adapted for use in the planning and landscape architecture departments at the University of Oregon and the engineering department at Oregon State University.

The Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation aims to advance the field of bicycle and pedestrian transportation through four primary mechanisms: (1) developing and pursuing a collaborative research agenda that more directly informs practice and and involves students through dissertation research and fellowships; (2) translating relevant research into a format and language that is more useful to practitioners, and making that research available through technology transfer; (3) developing more holistic approaches to the education and training of planners and engineers; and (4) supporting community-based outreach and education, to promote awareness of bicycle and pedestrian issues statewide and nationally. This proposal seeks one year of start-up funding for the second objective (technology transfer). Key activities and outcomes from the OTREC funding for the Initiative?s technology transfer activities include a website clearinghouse for research and evidence-based tools that is accessible and meaningful and a series of four white papers on areas of bicycle and pedestrian research that are directly relevant to professional practice and policymaking. The website increases the availability of existing resources for use by practitioners. These resources include an archive of weekly seminars sponsored by the Center for Transportation Studies at Portland State University and digests of recent research by faculty and students at Portland State University, Oregon State University and the University of Oregon. In addition, the website provides information on existing undergraduate and graduate courses at all three universities, links to other academic and practice-based resources, and information on upcoming and past professional development workshops. The white papers focused on topics that are new, crossdisciplinary, and innovative, including: (1) the economic impacts of bicycle and pedestrian transportation; (2) the effectiveness of Safe Routes to School programs and other approaches to creating safe, healthy transportation options for children; (3) the effectiveness of intersection safety treatments for bicycle facilities; and (4) the mental health benefits of bicycling and walking.

Bicycle route preference and pollution inhalation dose: Comparing exposure and distance trade-offs

Wider bike facilities intuitively accommodate a greater number of cyclists in the same amount of time, but specific queue discharge characteristics associated with varying widths and/or types of bike facilities have not been thoroughly documented. The focus of this research analyzed queues of cyclists at four signalized intersections in Portland, OR with varying widths on the approach and downstream intersection legs. A total of 2,820 cyclists within 630 groups of queued cyclists were observed at five different intersection layouts in Portland, Oregon. The layouts consisted of: a standard bike lane six feet wide connecting bicyclists to a standard bike lane six feet wide, a standard bike lane five feet wide connecting bicyclists to two standard bike lanes each five feet wide, a buffered bike lane 12 feet wide connecting bicyclists to a standard bike lane 6.5 feet wide, a bike box 21 feet wide connecting bicyclists to a buffered bike lane 10 feet wide, and a bike box 15 feet wide connecting bicyclists to two standard bike lanes each five feet wide. For each configuration, the following aspects were analyzed: average headway per cyclist within each queue, the time required for queues to enter the intersection, the time required for queues to clear the intersection, the number of cyclists within queues, the width of the bicycle facilities, the approach grade, and the utilization of a bike box at the intersection approach if it was present. The first major focus of the analysis reviewed the average headway values associated with each observed queue of cyclists. The queue size with the lowest mean of the average headway was for groups of seven cyclists with an average headway of approximately 0.8 seconds per cyclist. For queues larger than seven in size, the mean of the average headway remained relatively stable until queues of 12 in size and started to slightly increase toward approximately 1.0 seconds for queues larger than 12 cyclists. In addition, it appears that utilization of a bike box has a potential relationship with a reduced average headway as compared to queues that do not utilize a bike box. The associated reduction in the mean of the average headway was approximately 0.2 to 0.3 seconds per cyclist for queues of three or more in size. The second major focus of the analysis reviewed the queue discharge rate associated with each observed queue of cyclists. The results appear to potentially indicate that

What is the best way to promote bicycle transportation? Are people afraid to ride bicycles because motorists will run them over? Are there enough bicycle facilities available? Is promoting bicycle transportation a wise use of tax dollars? What percentage of the population currently rides bicycles? The San Diego Association of Governments allocates approximately $2 million annually on bicycling projects throughout San Diego County, California. Both the county of San Diego and the city of San Diego employ full-time bicycle coordinators. Periodically, questions and comments will arise regarding bicycling policies. “Why are they spending so much money on bicycle lanes? No one ever bicycles down this street.” “If they would build more bicycle paths, I would ride my bicycle to work instead of drive.” “How do they expect people to ride bicycles if they don’t maintain the pavement?” The San Diego County Bicycle Use and Attitude Survey was commissioned at the behest of the San Diego County Public Works Department to determine existing levels of bicycle usage and bicycling attitudes among San Diego County residents. A total of 3,800 interviews, conducted during February and March 1994 by telephone throughout the county, provided valuable insight into a large range of bicycling issues. The survey found that a majority (58 percent) of those residents polled reported that they were bicycle owners, and that a majority (68 percent) of those households in which bicycles were present reported that the adults bicycled. Respondents who bicycle chose bicycle paths, which are separated from motor vehicles, as their preferred bikeway facility. Almost three-fourths of the respondents (73 percent) stated that they did not bicycle at night. Only 15 percent of respondents who rode a bicycle at least once within the past year reported riding for transportation purposes. Over 99 percent of all respondents stated that they did not belong to a bicycling organization. A majority of respondents (over 70 percent) had not heard of various government programs that provided bicycle maps and bicycle information, and less than 10 percent of respondents have used these services. The majority of bicycling households (86 percent) reported being at least somewhat satisfied with the level of bikeway maintenance provided. Overall, survey respondents expressed support for government efforts to promote bicycle transportation.

The impact of built environment on urban residents’ cycling intensity and its heterogeneity: A case study of the central urban area of Wuhan

We evaluated the effects of on-street bicycle lanes installed prior to 2007 on different categories of crashes (total crashes, bicyclist crashes, pedestrian crashes, multiple-vehicle crashes, and injurious or fatal crashes) occurring on roadway segments and at intersections in New York City. We used generalized estimating equation methodology to compare changes in police-reported crashes in a treatment group and a comparison group before and after installation of bicycle lanes. Our study approach allowed us to control confounding factors, such as built environment characteristics, that cannot typically be controlled when a comparison group is used. Installation of bicycle lanes did not lead to an increase in crashes, despite the probable increase in the number of bicyclists. The most likely explanations for the lack of increase in crashes are reduced vehicular speeds and fewer conflicts between vehicles and bicyclists after installation of these lanes. Our results indicate that characteristics of the built environment have a direct impact on crashes and that they should thus be controlled in studies evaluating traffic countermeasures such as bicycle lanes. To prevent crashes at intersections, we recommend installation of "bike boxes" and markings that indicate the path of bicycle lanes across intersections.

This article discusses how local history can be used by teachers to help develop historical thinking skills such as source analysis, the collection of data, and the creation of historical arguments. Using New York City as a case study, this article argues that urban spaces and local communities provide historical evidence that can be read and analyzed. It uses different streets, buildings, and neighborhoods from New York City to show how historical conclusions can be drawn from those resources. It also discusses instructional ideas that teachers can develop in their classrooms.

Measuring shaded bike lanes for heat stress mitigation with deep learning: A case study in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Data collected from in-service products play an important role in enabling software-intensive embedded systems suppliers to embrace data-driven practices. Data can be used in many different ways such as to continuously learn and improve the product, enhance post-deployment services, reduce operational cost or create a better user experience. While there is no shortage of possible use cases leveraging data from in-service products, software-intensive embedded systems companies struggle to continuously collect data from their in-service products. Often, data collection is done in an ad-hoc way and targeting specific use cases or needs. Besides, few studies have investigated data collection challenges in relation to the data dimensions, which are the minimum set of quantifiable data aspects that can define software-intensive embedded product data from a collection point of view. To help address data collection challenges, and to provide companies with guidance on how to improve this process, we conducted a case study at a large multinational telecommunications supplier focusing on data characteristics and collection challenges from the Radio Access Networks (RAN) products. We further investigated the relations of these challenges to the data dimensions to increase our understanding of how data dominions contribute to the challenges.

Three-dimensional topological relationships serve as a theoretical foundation for quality control, update processing, and spatial analysis of three-dimensional spatial data in real-world three-dimensional GIS. The existing 3D topological relationship models are all basic relationship models that cannot distinguish the refined topological relationship between the line and the body with multiple intersections. In this study, we develop a 3D refined topological relationship description framework that draws from the two-dimensional refined topological relationship model, defines the unit intersection between the line and the body based on manifold topology, and proposes a method for describing the unit intersections between the line and the body considering Euler numbers and adjacency types. In total, 23 basic types between the line and the body are deduced. An example is provided to illustrate the distinguished refined topological relationship between the line and the body with multiple intersections. Subsequently, an algorithm for determining the basic type of line/body is developed. Finally, a line/body refined topological relationship computation prototype system is developed using the Nef polyhedron model, C++ language, and an open-source geometric algorithm library, and the effectiveness of our method is verified using actual building and pedestrian data.

Over the last two decades, cycling has seen a rise in popularity in North American cities, which are continuously expanding their bicycle networks. While studies highlight that a good utilitarian bicycle network should provide direct routes for cyclists to reach their desired destinations, most network assessments simply measure the length and growth of bicycle facilities. This study evaluates the performance of the bicycle network in Montreal, Canada using a set of complementary indicators accounting for the directness of bicycle facilities between observed origins and destinations of cyclists. The study first uses data on routes taken by cyclists from an online survey conducted in Montreal in 2009 to derive a perceived reduced cost of traveling on bicycle facilities. By applying the derived cost reduction coefficient to bicycle facilities (0.77), bicycle routes are then predicted for 1482 cycling trips from the 2013 Montreal Origin-Destination survey. For each predicted route, the proportion of route on bicycle facilities and the diversion from the shortest path are calculated to assess the directness allowed by bicycle facilities. These two indicators are then used to measure network connectivity. The findings reveal that only 33% of the routes are connected with a diversion lower than 12% and a route proportion on facilities higher than 50%. The results also highlight underperforming neighborhoods and demonstrate the importance of designing well-connected facilities between the boroughs. This study offers a proof of concept towards the development of a new methodology to measure bicycle network connectivity and support bicycle infrastructure planning.

In this paper, we propose a combination of pedestrian data collection and analysis and modeling that may yield higher competitive advantage in the business environment. The data collection is only based on simple inventory and questionnaire surveys on a hypermarket to obtain trajectory path of pedestrian movement. Though the data has limitation by using static trajectories, our techniques showed that it is possible to obtain aggregation of flow pattern and alley attractiveness similar to the result of aggregation using dynamic trajectory. A case study of a real hypermarket demonstrates that daily necessity products are closely related to higher flow pattern. Using the proposed method, we are also able to quantify pedestrian behavior that shoppers tend to walk about 7 times higher than the ideal shortest path.

Generally, there is a lack of high quality evidence to be able to draw firm conclusions as to the effect of cycling infrastructure on cycling collisions. There is a lack of rigorous evaluation of cycling infrastructure.