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Establishing the validity of cycle path capacity assumptions in the Highway Capacity Manual

Establishing the validity of cycle path capacity assumptions in the Highway Capacity Manual
Establishing the validity of cycle path capacity assumptions in the Highway Capacity Manual
Cycle mode share increase is widely desired, but highway design practitioners lack the numerical tools to deliver infrastructure, instead relying on design standards and intuition, with little literature basis. As a case in point, the US Highway Capacity Manual (which is well-used internationally) has developed levels of service for cycle infrastructure which are, at their core, based on an assumption of non-interaction between multiple cyclists.

This paper uses a modified implementation of the Social Force Model to test the validity of this assumption. Necessary changes such as the consideration of acceleration characteristics and minimum maintainable speed are included. The resulting model produces valid outcomes in keeping with established traffic flow properties reflecting three-phase traffic flow theory and the ability for the stochastic elements in traffic flow to cause flow break
down.

The developed simulation indicates that there is a fundamental difference in outcome if cyclists are assumed to have a fixed-speed versus one they can change given their surroundings. This difference in outcomes is found to exist within the range of literature design flow capacities for bicycle infrastructure and also yields emergent outcomes which align closely with those known behaviours of highway vehicles which intuitively transfer to cyclists. These findings reinforce the standing need for large-scale empirical studies to determine the basic numerical and behavioural parameters for cyclists, upon which all design ultimately rests.
1556-8318
422-432
Osowski, Chris
b0fb24fd-58a1-43e5-ad8f-8903f932b97e
Waterson, Ben
60a59616-54f7-4c31-920d-975583953286
Osowski, Chris
b0fb24fd-58a1-43e5-ad8f-8903f932b97e
Waterson, Ben
60a59616-54f7-4c31-920d-975583953286

Osowski, Chris and Waterson, Ben (2017) Establishing the validity of cycle path capacity assumptions in the Highway Capacity Manual. International Journal of Sustainable Transportation, 11 (6), 422-432. (doi:10.1080/15568318.2016.1266424).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Cycle mode share increase is widely desired, but highway design practitioners lack the numerical tools to deliver infrastructure, instead relying on design standards and intuition, with little literature basis. As a case in point, the US Highway Capacity Manual (which is well-used internationally) has developed levels of service for cycle infrastructure which are, at their core, based on an assumption of non-interaction between multiple cyclists.

This paper uses a modified implementation of the Social Force Model to test the validity of this assumption. Necessary changes such as the consideration of acceleration characteristics and minimum maintainable speed are included. The resulting model produces valid outcomes in keeping with established traffic flow properties reflecting three-phase traffic flow theory and the ability for the stochastic elements in traffic flow to cause flow break
down.

The developed simulation indicates that there is a fundamental difference in outcome if cyclists are assumed to have a fixed-speed versus one they can change given their surroundings. This difference in outcomes is found to exist within the range of literature design flow capacities for bicycle infrastructure and also yields emergent outcomes which align closely with those known behaviours of highway vehicles which intuitively transfer to cyclists. These findings reinforce the standing need for large-scale empirical studies to determine the basic numerical and behavioural parameters for cyclists, upon which all design ultimately rests.

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Establishing the validity of cycle path capacity assumptions in the Highway Capacity Manual.pdf - Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: 24 November 2016
e-pub ahead of print date: 14 December 2016
Published date: July 2017
Organisations: Transportation Group

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 403472
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/403472
ISSN: 1556-8318
PURE UUID: 22aa299d-e2cc-46e2-ac28-e39c1775a407
ORCID for Ben Waterson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-9817-7119

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Date deposited: 02 Dec 2016 10:02
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 02:59

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Contributors

Author: Chris Osowski
Author: Ben Waterson ORCID iD

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