Effects of bicycle lane on the shared use side walks from viewpoints of user's behavioar and safety sense

Abstract

Shared use of bicycle and pedestrians on wide sidewalks had been adopted all over Japan. Coloured cycles lanes on these shared use side walks have been constructed as one of the measures to improve the traffic safety and comfort of users. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects by a cycle lane on such sidewalks form the viewpoints of users' behaviour and their safety sense. By employing an experiment in which the cycle lane width and lane marks were changed on a street, and analysing on the lane distribution of pedestrian and cycle traffic, bicycle speed, avoiding behaviour, and sense of users, it was found that the cycle lane has the effect on the promotion of traffic segregation, reduction ofavoidance behaviour, and relief of risk perception of pedestrians and cyclists.