The team undertook research into the detailed modelling of cyclists in VISSIM for a London street environment.
The study focussed on London Bridge and the interaction between cyclists and buses in the bus lane in a northbound direction, with the aim to produce a ‘London cyclist’ set of behavioural parameters and desired speed profiles. This drew on previous cyclist modelling undertaken by the Danish company COWI, who had developed a variety of cyclist profiles for Copenhagen.
The more detailed behaviour parameters were reviewed and modified to suit a more typical London cyclist, who are considered to be more aggressive with lane changing and weaving through stationary traffic. Traffic survey data collected was also utilised for modelling cyclist gender split and different desired speeds of cyclists, which were all then fed into the VISSIM model. To validate the behaviour, bus journey times on London Bridge were obtained and compared, ensuring modelled bus times were within WebTAG criteria for journey time validation.
The outcome was a set of cyclist behaviour parameters for London cyclists, which was presented at Modelling World, 2016 in London and has been published in the ICE Transport journal.
https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi/abs/10.1680/jtran.16.00072
