Query: bicycle paths health

title: Impacts on air pollution and health by changing commuting from car to bicycle.
abstract: Our study is based on individual data on people's home and work addresses, as well as their age, sex and physical capacity, in order to establish realistic bicycle travel distances. A transport model is used to single out data on commuting preferences in the County Stockholm. Our analysis shows there is a very large potential for reducing emissions and exposure if all car drivers living within a distance corresponding to a maximum of a 30min bicycle ride to work would change to commuting by bicycle. It would result in >111,000 new cyclists, corresponding to an increase of 209% compared to the current situation. Mean population exposure would be reduced by about 7% for both NOx and black carbon (BC) in the most densely populated area of the inner city of Stockholm. Applying a relative risk for NOx of 8% decrease in all cause mortality associated with a 10mgm 3 decrease in NOx, this corresponds to >449 (95% CI: 340 558) years of life saved annually for the Stockholm county area with 2.1 million inhabitants. This is more than double the effect of the reduced mortality estimated for the introduction of congestion charge in Stockholm in 2006. Using NO2 or BC as indicator of health impacts, we obtain 395 (95% CI: 172 617) and 185 (95% CI: 158 209) years of life saved for the population, respectively. The calculated exposure of BC and its corresponding impacts on mortality are likely underestimated. With this in mind the estimates using NOx, NO2 and BC show quite similar health impacts considering the 95% confidence intervals.

title: Motives, perceptions and experiences of electric bicycle owners and implications for health, wellbeing and mobility
abstract: The sale of electrically assisted bicycles 'e bikes' is growing at a rapid rate across Europe. Whereas market data is available describing sales trends, there is limited understanding of the experience of early adopters of e bike technology. This paper investigates the motives for e bike purchase, rider experience and perceived impact on mobility, health and wellbeing through in depth interviews with e bike owners in the Netherlands and the UK. Findings revealed that the motive for purchasing e bikes was often to allow maintenance of cycling against a backdrop of changing individual or household circumstances. E bikes also provided new opportunities for people who would not otherwise consider conventional cycling. Perceptions of travel behaviour change revealed that e biking was replacing conventional cycling but was also replacing journeys that would have been made by car. There was also a perception that e biking has increased, or at least allowed participants to maintain, some form of physical activity and had benefitted personal wellbeing. Technological, social and environmental barriers to e biking were identified. These included weight of bicycle, battery life, purchase price, social stigma and limitations of cycle infrastructure provision. Additional research is necessary to quantify actual levels of mode substitution and new journey generation among new e bike owners and the impact of e biking on promoting physical health and mental wellbeing.

title: Risky riding: Naturalistic methods comparing safety behavior from conventional bicycle riders and electric bike riders.
abstract: As electric bicycles (e bikes) have emerged as a new transportation mode, their role in transportation systems and their impact on users have become important issues for policy makers and engineers. Little safety related research has been conducted in North America or Europe because of their relatively small numbers. This work describes the results of a naturalistic GPS based safety study between regular bicycle (i.e. standard bicycle) and e bike riders in the context of a unique bikesharing system that allows comparisons between instrumented bike technologies. We focus on rider safety behavior under four situations: (1) riding in the correct direction on directional roadway segments, (2) speed on on road and shared use paths, (3) stopping behavior at stop controlled intersections, and (4) stopping behavior at signalized intersections. We find that, with few exceptions, riders of e bike behave very similarly to riders of bicycles. Violation rates were very high for both vehicles. Riders of regular bicycles and e bikes both ride wrong way on 45% and 44% of segments, respectively. We find that average on road speeds of e bike riders (13.3kph) were higher than regular bicyclists (10.4kph) but shared use path (greenway) speeds of e bike riders (11.0kph) were lower than regular bicyclists (12.6kph) both significantly different at >95% confidence. At stop control intersections, both bicycle and e bike riders violate the stop signs at the similar rate with bicycles violating stop signs at a slightly higher rate at low speed thresholds ~80% violations at 6kph, 40% violations at 11kph) Bicycles and e bikes violate traffic signals at similar rates (70% violation rate) These findings suggest that, among the same population of users, e bike riders exhibit nearly identical safety behavior as regular bike riders and should be regulated in similar ways. Users of both technologies have very high violation rates of traffic control devices and interventions should occur to improve compliance.

title: Associations between the objective and perceived built environment and bicycling for transportation
abstract: This paper investigates the relative associations between the objectively measured built environment versus stated perceptions of the built environment and bicycling. Data are from a random phone survey conducted in the Portland, Oregon, region. Binary logit and linear regression models, using objective measures, perceived measures, and both sets of measures, were estimated to predict propensity of bicycling and frequency of bicycling separately. Results showed that the perceived environment and objective environment had different associations with bicycling. This suggests that future research should include both measures when possible and that a supportive objective environment is necessary for bicycling. Intervention programs to improve people's perceptions of the environment may be also necessary to reap the full potential of planning and design policies. The results also suggest that it is useful to predict bicycling propensity and bicycling frequency separately, as the predictors of each behavior do vary. For the objective measures, bicycle paths and lanes and minor streets were associated with higher propensity of bicycling for transportation, while paths and nearby retail destinations were associated with higher bicycling frequency. Perceptions of the environment did not predict the propensity to bicycle, after controlling for attitudes towards daily travel, but did predict bicycling frequency. Finally, the analysis confirms the importance of attitudes in predicting behavior.

title: Potential risk and its influencing factors for separated bicycle paths.
abstract: In this paper, we propose two potential risk indicators to define and evaluate the safety of bicycle path at the microscopic level. Field bicycle data were collected from three survey sites under different traffic conditions. These two risk indicators based on speed dispersion were proposed and calculated during each 5 min interval. The risk influences of various widths of bicycle path and traffic conditions were analyzed by using one way ANOVA. We further proposed a generalized linear model (GLM) for modeling and analyzing the relationships between bicycle risks and v/c ratio and percentages of electric bicycles, male cyclists, young cyclists, and loaded cyclists. The stepwise regression models were applied for determination of coefficients. The results show that the influences of gender and age of cyclists on potential risks are not significant. The risks increase with the width of bicycle path and percentage of electric bicycles, while only for wider bicycle path (4 lane case in this study) the risks are associated with whether or not cyclists are loaded. The findings could contribute for analysis and evaluation of the safety for bicycle path.

title: Human in the Loop Bicycle Control via Active Heart Rate Regulation
abstract: This paper addresses the design of a heart rate (HR) control system for a bicycle equipped with a continuously varying transmission. The control system helps the cyclist maintain a constant physical effort throughout the trip. A complete model of the entire system (bicycle, cyclist, and HR dynamics) is derived, identified, and validated using experimental data. The model is the basis for the development of two controllers. A proportional integral controller and a second order sliding mode (SOSM) controller. The two controllers are analyzed, concluding that the SOSM controller offers better robustness against unmodeled dynamics and disturbances. The SOSM controller is finally exhaustively tested on two subjects in real world conditions. With the proposed systems, the riders are capable of keeping their HR within 10 bpm from the desired one.

title: Characterisation of and reflections on the synergy of bicycles and public transport
abstract: The bicycle is often understood as a disjointed 'feeder' mode that provides access to public transport. We argue that combined use of the bicycle and public transport should be understood in a broader perspective, especially where bicycles link to higher speed and higher capacity public transport, such as the train. Cycling and public transport can have a symbiotic relationship forming a hybrid, distinct transport mode, which should be reflected in transport planning. The bicycle is as a way to soften the rigid nature of public transport and thus accommodate diverse individual travel needs and situations. Public transport can be seen as a means to dramatically extend cycling's speed and spatial reach. We combine a system perspective with conceptual analysis to explore how, why and when this reconsideration is important. We use the Netherlands as illustrative case because of the relative maturity of its bicycle train connections. The case shows that the synergy between rather opposite yet highly complementary aspects, high speed of the train, high accessibility of the bicycle and flexibility in combining both sub modes, are the fundamental characteristics to understand the functioning of this system in a wider spatial context. In our conclusion we propose a research agenda, to further explore the relevance of this system for land use and transport planning and distil wider implications for the international debate.

title: The Effect of Sharrows, Painted Bicycle Lanes and Physically Protected Paths on the Severity of Bicycle Injuries Caused by Motor Vehicles
abstract: We conducted individual and ecologic analyses of prospectively collected data from 839 injured bicyclists who collided with motorized vehicles and presented to Bellevue Hospital, an urban Level 1 trauma center in New York City, from December 2008 to August 2014. Variables included demographics, scene information, rider behaviors, bicycle route availability, and whether the collision occurred before the road segment was converted to a bicycle route. We used negative binomial modeling to assess the risk of injury occurrence following bicycle path or lane implementation. We dichotomized U.S. National Trauma Data Bank Injury Severity Scores (ISS) into none/mild (0 8) versus moderate, severe, or critical >8) and used adjusted multivariable logistic regression to model the association of ISS with collision proximity to sharrows (i.e. bicycle lanes designated for sharing with cars) painted bicycle lanes, or physically protected paths. Negative binomial modeling of monthly counts, while adjusting for pedestrian activity, revealed that physically protected paths were associated with 23% fewer injuries. Painted bicycle lanes reduced injury risk by nearly 90% (IDR 0.09, 95% CI 0.02 0.33) Holding all else equal, compared to no bicycle route, a bicycle injury nearby sharrows was nearly twice as likely to be moderate, severe, or critical (adjusted odds ratio 1.94; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.91 4.15) Painted bicycle lanes and physically protected paths were 1.52 (95% CI 0.85 2.71) and 1.66 (95% CI 0.85 3.22) times as likely to be associated with more than mild injury respectively.

title: Built environment determinants of bicycle volume: A longitudinal analysis
abstract: This study examines determinants of bicycle volume in the built environment with a five year bicycle count dataset from Seattle, Washington. A generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) is used to capture the bicycle volume change over time while controlling for temporal autocorrelations. The GLMM assumes that bicycle count follows a Poisson distribution. The model results show that (1) the variables of non winter seasons, peak hours, and weekends are positively associated with the increase of bicycle counts over time; (2) bicycle counts are fewer in steep areas; (3) bicycle counts are greater in zones with more mixed land use, a higher percentage of water bodies, or a greater percentage of workplaces; (4) the increment of bicycle infrastructure is positively associated with the increase of bicycle volume; and (5) bicycling is more popular in neighborhoods with a greater percentage of whites and younger adults. It concludes that areas with a smaller slope variation, a higher employment density, and a shorter distance to water bodies encourage bicycling. This conclusion suggests that to best boost bicycling, decision makers should consider building more bicycle facilities in flat areas and integrating the facilities with employment densification and open space creation and planning.

title: Mobile Cockpit System for Enhanced Electric Bicycle Use
abstract: This paper presents the project of a mobile cockpit system (MCS) for smartphones, which provides assistance to electric bicycle (EB) cyclists in smart cities' environment. The presented system introduces a mobile application (MCS App) with the goal to provide useful personalized information to the cyclist related to the EB's use, including EB range prediction considering the intended path, management of the cycling effort performed by the cyclist, handling of the battery charging process, and the provisioning of information regarding available public transport. This work also introduces the EB cyclist profile concept, which is based on historical data analysis previously stored in a database and collected from mobile devices' sensors. From the tests performed, the results show the importance of route guidance, taking into account the energy savings. The results also show significant changes on range prediction based on user and route taken. It is important to say that the proposed system can be used for all bicycles in general.