Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety and Comfort on Water Street; What are the Impacts of Adding Bicycle Infrastructure on a Low Speed Road?

Bicycle infrastructure on low speed roads has a significant effect on the safety of bicyclists and drivers alike. Bicyclists are often faced with many problems on a roadway that deal with maneuvering to avoid vehicles or other obstacles on the road. And many times, bicyclists face these issues because of a lack of bicycle infrastructure. The adaption of bike lanes and sharrows onto low speed roads will be evaluated on the basis of poor bicycle-vehicle interactions. The addition of bicycle infrastructure involves the human need for this type of safety measure as well as the social responses that may arise due to this type of change. The theory of coproduction will used to describe the mutual shaping of bicyclists and drivers, as well as the influence of federal or local governments on the creation of bicycle infrastructure. Case studies of cities with and without bicycle infrastructure will be examined in order to detail the effects of bike lanes and sharrows on roadway usability and safety. This research hopes to achieve a greater understanding of the impacts of bicycle infrastructure on cities and roads. Established bicycle infrastructure will heighten the awareness of drivers to bicyclists which will, hopefully, alter future road designs to incorporate more bicycle infrastructure.

School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering
Technical Advisor: Tong Chen and Arsalan Heydarian
STS Advisor: Rider Foley
Technical Team Members: Emily Chen, Richard Dobson, Cem Kutay, Tiffany Nguyen, Mark Schenkel, Brendan Vachris