Abstract
OBJECTIVES : The objective of this study is to propose a capacity analysis methodology for riverside bike-exclusive roads. METHODS : Three steps were performed to develop a methodology to estimate bikeway capacity. First, we reviewed previous studies on the vehicle-road capacity analysis and proposed their applicability to bikeways. Second, two assumptions were made based on the traffic flow characteristics of bikeways: (1) the capacitated state in bikeways occur within a bicycle platoon, and (2) a bicycle platoon consists of more than three bicycles running in close proximity. In addition, it is assumed that the mean time headway of a bicycle platoon represents the characteristics of the platoon. The normality of the mean-time headway of a bicycle platoon calculated using the central limit theorem leads to the development of a method that estimates the riverside bikeway capacity using data collected from two different riverside bike-exclusive roads (Han-river and Anyangcheon). We used a location-fixed video camera to record videos of running bicycles and wrote a special-purpose software program to code the time-headway data from the videos. RESULTS : Time headways from 189 bicycle platoons were analyzed. The estimated mean-time headway of the capacitated bicycle flow is 1.01 s, from which the capacity of the bikeway is found to be 3578 vehicles/h. CONCLUSIONS : The proposed method that estimates bikeway capacity could be applicable to the analysis of short-range congested area rather than planning the number of lanes. In other words, it determines the sections that are temporarily highly congested and proposes appropriate strategies to mitigate the congestion.
