●Research Trends and Results

A Study of Bicycle Travel Speed
Traffic Engineering Division, Road Department
YAMAMOTO Akira (Research Engineer), KOBAYASHI Hiroshi (Senior Researcher),
UESAKA Katsumi (Doctor of Engineering)
Keywords: Bicycle, travel speed, cycling space

3. Bicycle travel speed on public roads
We set up a course with a circuit of approximately 5km that was comprised of a bicycle lane, sidewalk foruse by bicycles and pedestrians, vehicle lane, andnarrow street in Kameido, Koto Ward, Tokyo. We
then conducted an actual cycling study on this course.
From the results, we found that travel speed that
includes waiting for traffic signals was much lower
than free travel speed (Figure 3). This is thought tobe a result of the signal waiting time and the cycling
spaces. When we studied travel speed by type of
cycling space, we found that speed dropped
significantly on the sidewalk for use by bicycles andpedestrians (Figure 4). In addition, we discoveredthat travel speed on this sidewalk had a positive
correlation with pedestrian density (sidewalkcrowding).
4. Conclusion
Looking forward, we plan to quantify the effectcaused by waiting at traffic signals and study a simple
equation for estimating bicycle travel time.

Frequency*Values are obtainedby dividing travel
data for one week
into 500-meter
sections and thentotaling.

凡例
Symbols

軽快車
Standard bicycle

E-bicycle
アシスト車

N = 120

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 (km/h)
Free travel speed

Average

Median85thpercentile

MaximumStandard
deviation

16.8

16.8

18.2

21.7

2.1

18.6

19.1

19.8

21.7

1.8

Standardbicycle
E-bicycle

Fig. 1: Distribution frequency of free travel speeds and pertinent dataSymbols
凡例

85th
percentile values of standard bicycle totaled
アシスト車乗車時の速度増減率について
at 5% intervals of rate of speed change when
5%間隔に集計した軽快車の85%タイル値
ridinge-bicycle

Travel speed when riding e-bicycle
アシスト車乗車時旅行速度-1
Travel speed when riding standard-1
軽快車乗車時旅行速度
bicycleRate of speed change whenidi
bi l

35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
‐5%
‐10%

Approximate straight line connecting
85th
percentile values
85%タイル値を結んだ近似直線

y = -0.0651x + 1.3017
R² = 0.9684
N=120

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24(km/h)

Free travel speed when riding standard bicycle

Fig. 2: Comparison of speed differences of standard bicycle ande-bicycle(km/h)

Free travel speed

2. Free bicycle travel speed
We defined free travel speed as cycling speed that is
not affected by road width, traffic volume, traffic
signals, or other factors. Then, using NILIM’s test
course (approximately 6.1 km for one circuit), we
conducted an actual cycling study using a standard
bicycle for casual riding and an electric power-assisted
bicycle (hereafter “e-bicycle”). The results showed
that, while the e-bicycle was faster than the standard
bicycle in terms of average free travel speed, theirmaximum speeds were the same (Figure 1).
Moreover, we found that the faster a person cycles on
the standard bicycle, the more the speed difference
between the standard bicycle and the e-bicycle
narrows (Figure 2). In addition, although we foundsome differences in free travel speed due to genderand age, these differences were not significant.

403530252015105020

Average
公道におけるtravel speed on
public road

16.7 (km/h)

18.5 (km/h)

Of this, people who
内,公道調査にparticipated in thepublic road study
参加された方16.5 (km/h)

19.7 (km/h)

Symbols
凡例Standardbicycle
軽快車

51015E-bicycle
アシスト車

9.6 (km/h)

In the public road study, nine people rode astandard bicycle twice and three peoplerode an e-bicycle once. In the test course
study, 10 people rode both a standard
bicycle and e-bicycle once each.

E-bicycle
アシスト 車5Standard

9.6 (km/h)

平均旅行速度

10軽快車
bicycle平均自由旅行速度
speed

Average free travel1520 (km/h)

Public road travel speed (includingwaiting at traffic signals)

Fig. 3: Comparison of travel speed and free travel speed on publicroads
30

N=120

N=53

N=96

N=35

N=314

Bicyclelane

Sidewalk for use bybicycles/pedestrians

25Travel speed

1. Introduction
Bicycle travel speed is seen as a promising indicatorfor studies of bicycle network plans aimed atpromoting bicycle use and securing safe cycling
spaces.
While studies of spot speed are available in existing
research, there are few studies on long-distance travel
speed. In this paper, we present an interim report fora study of travel speed during cycling on flat roads of
5 to 6 km in length.

(km/h)

20151050*Analysis based on standard bicycle data
Free travel
speed

Vehiclelane

Narrow
streetFig. 4: Relationship between travel space and bicycle travel speed