Safety Evaluation of Overtaken Bicycle on a Shared Bicycle Path

Abstract:

This research analyzes bicycle maneuvers in 92 escooterpassingbicycle events collected from two shared bicycle paths in Shanghai. The results show that an overtaken bicyclist may experience three phases in a passing event: a normal riding phase, an overtaking effect phase in which the bicyclist is under the escooter’s pressure, and a transitional phase of adjusting the bicycle’s maneuvers. In the overtaking effect phase, the bicycle’s acceleration will fluctuate more sharply but less uniformly than in the normal riding phase. The start time and the length of the overtaking effect phase differ between different types of passing events, and they also differ based on the bicycle’s longitudinal and lateral movements. A safety evaluation model is proposed to assess the overtaken bicycle’s safety in these events. The model indicates that, on average, the negative effect of an adjacent passing event on the overtaken bicycle’s safety is five times as much as that of a free passing event. A field test shows that the model can accurately reveal bicyclists’ actual sense of safety during the overtaking, with an accuracy of 87.05%.