Bicycling

Assessing Public Health Benefits of Replacing Freight Trucks with Cargo Cycles in Last Leg Delivery Trips in Urban Centers

Hartle, J
Elrahman, O
Wang, C
Rodriguez, Daniel
Ding, Y
McGahan, M
2022

Increased urbanization, population growth, and demand for time-sensitive deliveries means increased freight movement in cities, which contributes to emissions, noise, and safety concerns. One innovative mode gaining widespread attention for urban deliveries is cargo cycles—bicycles adapted for freight delivery. Despite the recognized potential and possible success of transporting at least 25% of freight via cycle, research remains limited. This research investigates the potential of cargo cycle delivery for last mile freight in Oakland, California, with a focus on the West Oakland...

Assessing Urban and Rural Neighborhood Characteristics Using Audit and GIS Data: Derivation and Reliability of Constructs

Evenson, KR
Sotres-Alvarez, D
Herring, AH
Messer, L
Laraia, BA
Rodriguez, Daniel
2009

Measures to assess neighborhood environments are needed to better understand the salient features that may enhance outdoor physical activities, such as walking and bicycling for transport or leisure. The purpose of this study was to derive constructs to describe neighborhoods using both primary (neighborhood audit) and secondary (geographic information systems) data. We collected detailed information on 10,770 road segments using an audit and secondary data. The road segment sample was randomly split into an exploratory (60%) and validation sample (40%) for...

Adult Bicycle Education Classes Increase Confidence, Feelings of Safety, and Knowledge of Bicycling Rules

Nachman, Elizabeth R., MCP
Rodríguez, Daniel
2019

Adult bicycle education classes are becoming an increasingly popular strategy to improve safety, mitigate congestion, and reach environmental goals. However, there is limited empirical research on the effectiveness of these classes among adults, and there are no studies evaluating the impacts of classroom-based education on this population. To address this gap in knowledge, a study was conducted evaluating the effectiveness of classroom-based adult bicycle education on delivering changes related to bicycling activity, self-perceptions while bicycling, knowledge of the bicycling rules of...

A42 Transportation, Air Pollution and Physical ActivitieS (TAPAS): A Comprehensive Research Programme on Active Travel

Nazelle, A De
Rojas-Rueda, D
Jerrett, M
Rodriguez, Daniel
Cole-Hunter, T
Donaire, D
Andersen, Z
Nieuwenhuijsen, MJ
2015
Encouraging walking and cycling as means of transportation may have diverse benefits, such as reduced pollutant emissions and increased physical activity in the population. At the same time, individuals who shift to active travel modes may also experience increased risks of traffic...

A Systematic Review of Empirical and Simulation Studies Evaluating the Health Impact of Transportation Interventions

Stankov, I
Garcia, LMT
Mascolli, M
Montes, F
Meisel, JD
Gouveia, N
Sarmiento, O
Rodriguez, Daniel
Hammond, R
Caiaffa, WT
Roux, AV Diez
2020
Urban transportation is an important determinant of health and environmental outcomes, and therefore essential to achieving the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals. To better understand the health impacts of transportation initiatives, we conducted a systematic review of longitudinal health evaluations involving: a) bus rapid transit (BRT); b) bicycle lanes; c) Open Streets programs; and d) aerial trams/cable cars. We also synthesized systems-based simulation studies of the health-related consequences of walking, bicycling, aerial tram, bus and BRT use. Two reviewers screened 3302...

A Comparison of Heat Effects on Road Injury Frequency Between Active Travelers and Motorized Transportation Users in Six Tropical and Subtropical Cities in Taiwan

Hsu, CK
Rodriguez, Daniel
2024
Road traffic injuries (RTIs) pose significant public health threats, particularly for vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists. While recent studies have revealed adverse impacts of heat exposure on RTI frequency among motorized road users, a research gap persists in understanding these impacts on non-motorized road users, especially in tropical regions where their vulnerability can be heightened due to differential thermal exposure, adaptive capacity, and biological sensitivity. In this study, we compared associations between high temperatures and RTIs across four different...

Bicycle Level of Service: Accounting for Protected Lanes, Traffic Exposure, and Delay

Fournier, Nicholas
Huang, Amy
Alexander Skabardonis
Transportation Research Board
2021

Motorized traffic exposure and delay are two critical factors for bicycle level of service (LOS). Unfortunately, the current Highway Capacity Manual’s methodology for bicycle LOS fully accounts for neither. At the intersection level, motorized traffic speed and bicycle delay are not considered at all; and at the link level there is no account for one of the most effective traffic-exposure mitigating infrastructure types, separated bicycle lanes. This creates a systemic problem, enabling the design of roadways that ignore bicycle exposure and delay (i.e., comfort and safety), while giving...

Bicycle Level of Service: Proposed Updated Pavement Quality Index

Huang, Jiayun
Fournier, Nicholas
Alexander Skabardonis
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
2021

The Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) employs a simple five-point system to assess the quality of bikeway pavement as part of the comprehensive bicycle level of service (LOS) evaluation. Unfortunately, the ambiguous and rudimentary nature of the existing HCM Pavement Quality Index (PQI) fails to offer an objective review of bikeways across different jurisdictions. In the following analysis, first is an assessment of the PQI and bicycle LOS in the HCM. To demonstrate the impact of the pavement quality rating and the importance of a more standardized evaluation method, a sensitivity analysis is...

Improved Analysis Methodologies and Strategies for Complete Streets

Fournier, Nicholas
Huang, Amy
Alexander Skabardonis
University of California, Berkeley
California Department of Transportation
California Business Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
2021

Complete streets movement is a national effort to return to traditional streets in cities to enhance livability, safely, accommodate all modes of travel, provide travel choices, ease traffic congestion, and promote healthier communities. The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and several local agencies in the State have developed implementation plans for complete streets. In this project, the authors developed and tested improved strategies and analysis methodologies for complete streets, taking into consideration the emerging advances in technology on control devices and...

Evaluation of a Novel Methodology to Measure Bicycle Network Connectivity

Miah, Md Mintu
Fournier, Nicholas
Alexander Skabardonis
2025

Bicycling is among the most environmentally sustainable and economically affordable travel modes available. The popularity of bicycling activities strongly depends on the availability of well-connected bicycle networks. Existing methodologies to measure network connectivity are often purely academic, complex, subjective, or locally specific. This study aims to develop and test a reliable methodology for evaluating bicycle network connectivity. The study proposed two weighted shortest-path graph algorithms: the low-stress bike network connectivity (LSBNC), and designated bicycle network...