Bicyclist understanding, use, and preference of various innovative bicycle infrastructure treatments

Abstract

As bicycle transportation has increased, especially among commuters, so have the types of bicycle infrastructure facilities increased. This report focuses on the application of several of these innovative bicycle infrastructure treatments in three different scenarios: shared-lane facilities, bicycle-specific facilities, and high-conflict area treatments. The focus treatments include the sharrow, Sharrow Bicycle Priority Lane, Green Bicycle Priority Lane, Bicycles May Use Full Lane sign, green bike lane, bike-box, green lane in a conflict area, and elephant's footprint markings. The goal of this report is to gather how well bicyclists understand their meaning, how they would use each, and which treatments are most preferred among bicyclists. Data for this study was gathered in the form of an online survey administered to 1000 bicyclists of varying levels and purposes from different regions of the country. The survey gathers general rider characteristics, asks how each bicyclist would use each treatment in different traffic speed and volume scenarios, and finally each respondent rates each of the treatments in order of preference. Using the survey results, the effectiveness of each treatment is analyzed in detail by different population segments of those surveyed. Bicyclist riding characteristics and route choice factors are also examined in detail to better understand the sampled population of riders. The results are discussed and conclusions to the effectiveness of each treatment are made.