Research Topic: Bicycle Research: Cargo Bikes and Bike-Truck Interactions

Cargo e-bikes are two-, three-, or four-wheeled vehicles with cargo-carrying capacity. Since they are human-powered and often have an electric pedal assist, they are an alternative mode of delivering goods in dense urban areas. They present several advantages over the traditional modes of urban freight: they are more agile in navigating traffic, they occupy less space, and can potentially park anywhere. However, previous studies and pilots showed mixed results. The Urban Freight Lab has been collecting and analyzing data from cargo bike pilot studies and simulations to address questions on their operational efficiency, sustainability, and safety.

Bike-truck conflicts are interactions between a bicyclist and another road user such that at least one of the parties must change direction or speed to avoid collisions.

UPS E-Bike Delivery Pilot Test in Seattle: Analysis of Public Benefits and Costs (Task Order 6)

The City of Seattle granted a permit to United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) in fall 2018 to pilot test a new e-bike parcel delivery system in the Pioneer Square/Belltown area for one year. The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) commissioned the Urban Freight Lab (UFL) to quantify and document the public impacts of this multimodal delivery system change in the final 50 feet of supply chains, to provide data and evidence for development of future urban freight policies.

The UFL will conduct analyses into the following research questions:

What are the total changes in VMT and emissions (PM and GHG) to all three affected cargo van routes due to the e-bike pilot test in the Pike Place Market and neighboring areas?
What is the change in the delivery van’s dwell time, e.g. the amount of time the van is parked, before and after introducing the e-bike?
How does the e-bike system affect UPS’ failed first delivery (FFD) attempt rate along the route?
If UPS begins to stage drop boxes along the route for the e-bike (instead of having to replenish from the parked trailer) what are the impacts to total VMT and emissions?
How do e-bike delivery operations impact pedestrian, other bike, and motor traffic?

Technical Report

Multimodal Intersections: Resolving Conflicts between Trains, Motor Vehicles, Bicyclists and Pedestrians

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URL: https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/35068

Publication: Oregon State Department of Transportation

Publication Date: 2017

Summary:

This research report investigates the relationship between pedestrians and bicyclists on paths parallel to railroad tracks and with a road perpendicular to the path. The possible conflicts at intersections within these design parameters are of concern to ODOT, and therefore, has been recognized as an opportunity to conduct research that improves this type of intersection. The goal of this research project is to create a Guidebook that suggests appropriate path or road treatments for crossings, while also acknowledging and complimenting the unique site conditions present at the intersection. The report contains an extensive literature review, including existing railroad treatment options, and a description of the conducted field surveys and pedestrian, bicycle, vehicle, and train counts from the video. The report could help future work, such as developing more design solutions for paths parallel to tracks and the road perpendicular to the path. A preliminary guidebook is exemplified in the conducted case studies. It is intended to be a user friendly tool for city planners and engineers to assess a crossing and identify appropriate treatment options to improve the path and road user environment, and overall safety for all users.

Authors: Anna Bovbjerg AlligoodDr. Ed McCormackDr. Anne GoodchildManali Sheth

Recommended Citation:
Goodchild, Anne V., Edward McCormack, Anna Bovbjerg, and Manali Sheth. Multimodal Intersections: Resolving Conflicts Between Trains, Motor Vehicles, Bicyclists and Pedestrians. No. FHWA-OR-18-04. Oregon. Dept. of Transportation, 2017.

Technical Report

Insights from Driver Parking Decisions in a Truck Simulator to Inform Curb Management Decisions

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URL: http://hdl.handle.net/1773/49802

Publication Date: 2023

Summary:

Millions of people who live and work in cities purchase goods online. As ecommerce and urban deliveries spike, there is an increasing demand for curbside loading and unloading space. To better manage city curb spaces for urban freight, city planners and decision makers need to understand commercial vehicle driver behaviors and the factors they consider when parking at the curb.

Urban freight transportation is a diverse phenomenon. Commercial vehicle drivers must overcome several obstacles and adapt to various rules and policies to properly navigate the intricate metropolitan network and make deliveries and pick-ups. However, other road users and occasionally municipal planners generally view them as contributing considerably to urban congestio, responsible for unauthorized parking, double parking, and exceeding their legal parking time.

These realities reflect the need for a thorough comprehension of commercial vehicle operators’ core decision-making procedures and parking habits to inform and adjust curb management policies and procedures. However, more robust corroborated literature on the subject is needed. The information used in these studies is typically obtained from empirical field research, which, while valuable, is limited to certain situations and case scenarios. Therefore, to improve the operation of urban transportation networks, it is necessary to study commercial vehicle drivers’ parking behavior in a controlled environment.

This project used a heavy vehicle driving simulator to examine commercial vehicle drivers’ curbside parking behaviors in various environments in shared urban areas. Also observed were the interactions between commercial vehicle drivers and other road users.

The experiment was successfully completed by 12 participants. Five independent variables were included in this experiment: number of lanes (two-lane and four-lane roads), bike lane existence, passenger vehicle parking space availability, commercial vehicle loading zones (CVLZs) (no CVLZ, occupied CVLZs, and unoccupied CVLZs), and parking time (short-term parking: 3 to 5 minutes and long-term parking: 20 to 60 minutes). The heavy vehicle driving simulator also collected data regarding participants’ driving speed, eye movement, and stress level.

Results from the heavy vehicle driving simulator experiment indicated that the presence of a bike lane had significant effects on commercial vehicle drivers’ parking decisions., but only a slight effect on fixation duration times. The average fixation duration time, representing how long participants looked at a particular object, on the road with a bike lane was 4.81 seconds, whereas it was 5.25 seconds on roads without a bike lane. Results also showed that the frequency of illegal parking (not parking in the CVLZs) was greater during short-term parking activities, occurring 60 times (45 percent of parking maneuvers). Delivery times also had a slight effect on commercial vehicles’ speed while searching for parking (short-term parking was 17.7 mph; long term parking was 17.2 mph) and on drivers’ level of stress (short-term parking was 8.16 peaks/mins; long-term parking was 8.36 peaks/mins). Seven percent of participants chose to park in the travel lane, which suggested that commercial vehicle operators prioritize minimizing their walking distance to the destination over the violation of parking regulations.

The limited sample size demonstrated the value of our experimental approach but limited the strength of the recommendations that can be applied to practice. With that limitation acknowledged, our preliminary recommendations for city planners include infrastructure installation (i.e., convex mirrors installed at the curbside and CVLZ signs) to help drivers more easily identify legal parking spaces, and pavement markings (i.e., CVLZs, buffered bike lanes) to improve safety when parking. Parking time limits and buffers for bike lanes could improve efficient operation and safety for cyclists and other road users.

For future work, larger sample sizes should be collected. Additional factors could be considered, such as increased traffic flow, pedestrian traffic, conflicts among multiple delivery vehicles simultaneously, various curb use type allocations, and different curb policies and enforcement. Including a larger variety of commercial vehicle sizes and loading, zone sizes would also be of value. A combination of field observations and a driving simulator study could also help validate this investigation’s outcomes.

Authors: Dr. Andisheh RanjbariDr. Anne GoodchildDr. Ed McCormackRishi Verma, David S. Hurwitz (Oregon State University), Yujun Liu (Oregon State University), Hisham Jashami (Oregon State University)

Recommended Citation:
Goodchild, A., McCormack, E., Hurwitz, D., Ranjbari, A., Verma, R., Liu, Y., & Jashami, H. (2023). Insights from Driver Parking Decisions in a Truck Simulator to Inform Curb Management Decisions. PacTrans.

Paper

A Description of Fatal Bicycle Truck Accidents in the United States: 2000 to 2010

URL: https://trid.trb.org/view/1394216

Publication: Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting

Volume: 16-5911

Publication Date: 2016

Summary:

Bicycling is being encouraged across the US and the world as a low-impact, environmentally friendly mode of transportation. In the US, many states and cities, especially cities facing congestion issues, are encouraging cycling as an alternative to automobiles. However, as cities grow and consumption increases, freight traffic in cities will increase as well, leading to higher amounts of interactions between cyclists and trucks. This paper will describe where and how accidents between cyclists and trucks occur. From 2000 to 2010, 807 bicyclists were killed the United States in accidents involving trucks. In 2009, trucks accounted for 9.5% of fatal bicycle accidents, despite trucks only accounting for 4.5% of registered vehicles. The typical fatal bike-truck accident happens in an urban area on an arterial street with a speed limit of 35 or 45 mph. It is about equally likely to occur mid-block or at an intersection. Most accidents involved trucks going straight (56%), and right-turning trucks were involved in a much larger number of accidents (24%) than left turning trucks (7%). Methods such as providing bicycle lanes, or even physically separated bicycle tracks, will not be sufficient to address bicycle-truck collisions, as a significant number of accidents (49%) occur in intersections or are intersection related. Cities with a higher mode-share of bicycling had a lower rate of bicycle-truck fatality accidents.

Authors: Dr. Anne Goodchild, Jerome Drescher

Recommended Citation:
Drescher, Jerome and Anne Goodchild. (2016), "A Description of Fatal Bicycle Truck Accidents in the United States: 2000 to 2010," Accepted for presentation at the 95th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington DC, January 10-14. [Paper # 16-5911]

Paper

How Cargo Cycle Drivers Use the Urban Transport Infrastructure

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URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2022.103562

Publication: Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice

Volume: 167

Publication Date: 2023

Summary:

Electric cargo cycles are often considered a viable alternative mode for delivering goods in an urban area. However, cities in the U.S. are struggling to regulate cargo cycles, with most authorities applying the same rules used for motorized vehicles or traditional bikes. One reason is the lack of understanding of the relationships between existing regulations, transport infrastructure, and cargo cycle parking and driving behaviors.

In this study, we analyzed a cargo cycle pilot test in Seattle and collected detailed data on the types of infrastructure used for driving and parking. GPS data were augmented by installing a video camera on the cargo cycle and recording the types of infrastructure used (distinguishing between the travel lane, bicycle lane, and sidewalk), the time spent on each type, and the activity performed.

The analysis created a first-of-its-kind, detailed profile of the parking and driving behaviors of a cargo cycle driver. We observed a strong preference for parking (80 percent of the time) and driving (37 percent of the time) on the sidewalk. We also observed that cargo cycle parking was generally short (about 4 min), and the driver parked very close to the delivery address (30 m on average) and made only one delivery. Using a random utility model, we identified the infrastructure design parameters that would incentivize drivers to not use the sidewalk and to drive more on travel and bicycle lanes.

The results from this study can be used to better plan for a future in which cargo cycles are used to make deliveries in urban areas.

Authors: Dr. Giacomo Dalla ChiaraGriffin DonnellyŞeyma GüneşDr. Anne Goodchild

Recommended Citation:
Dalla Chiara, G., Donnelly, G., Gunes, S., & Goodchild, A. (2023). How Cargo Cycle Drivers Use the Urban Transport Infrastructure. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 167, 103562. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2022.103562

Student Thesis and Dissertations

Survey on the Bike Commute Environment among Seattle Area Bike Planners and Advocates

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.28619.31529

Publication Date: 2020

Summary:

Bike facilities like bike lanes, bike trails, and neighborhood greenways have been the backbone of Seattle’s bike planning policy with the goal of promoting active transportation, reducing car dependence, improving social equity, and eliminating bike accidents. While the equitable implementation of all of these facilities are still a priority for the Seattle’s Office of Planning and Community Development to increase viable commute mobility options, bike planning investments may not reflect the priorities shared by those in the bike community. Other factors in the bike commute environment were not present in Seattle’s Bike Master Plan, such as bike storage and shower facilities. There is also a lack of knowledge on whether there were priorities that people of color might have that are different. To better understand those priorities, this study sent out an online survey to 14 bike facility planning groups and bike community organizations around Seattle on the importance of nineteen different factors in the bike commute environment. For each factor, there were a range of values gauging the degree of importance of a bike commute factor to the bike commute environment, as well as a free response to allow respondents to elaborate on their answers. In total, 71 survey responses were received. The factor that placed the highest importance on the bike commute environment was bike racks and storage, higher than even bike facilities such as bike lanes. There were also not many differences in the priorities expressed by people of color, with the only significant difference being the weighting of sharrows, which had received significantly more support from people of color. Using the results of the survey, we recommend that the City of Seattle develop a bike commute environment index with a weighting scheme that is reflective of the priorities expressed in the survey, in addition to informing the City what are the community priorities in the bike commute environment.

Authors: Dr. Ed McCormack, Theodore Cheung, Katie Sheehy, Christine Bae

Recommended Citation:
Cheung, Theodore & Sheehy, Katie & Bae, Christine & McCormack, Edward. (2020). Survey on the Bike Commute Environment among Seattle Area Bike Planners and Advocates. 10.13140/RG.2.2.28619.31529.