Abstract
The red-light running (RLR) behaviors of urban mixed e-bike groups (delivery and ordinary e-bike) have become the main cause of traffic accidents at signalized intersections. The primary purpose of this study is to identify influencing factors of e-bike riders’ RLR behaviors, focusing on the role of delivery e-bike riders in mixed e-bike rider groups. Crossing behaviors of 4,180 e-bike samples (2006 delivery e-bikes and 2174 ordinary e-bikes) at signalized intersections are observed in Xi’an, China. The random parameter multinomial logit model is employed to capture the unobserved heterogeneous effects, and the effects of interaction terms are also considered. The results indicate that delivery e-bike riders are more likely to run red lights than ordinary e-bike riders. E-bike type, riders’ age, waiting position, traffic volume, traffic light type, and time of day are associated with crossing behaviors in urban mixed e-bike groups. In addition, the variable of traffic light status is found to account for unobserved heterogeneity. Findings are indicative to the development of effective implications in improving e-bikes’ traffic safety level at signalized intersections.
Highlights
Electric bikes (e-bikes), as an efficient mode of urban transportation, can facilitate the daily travel of urban dwellers and effectively alleviate the traffic emission problem. e number of e-bikes in China was 250 million in 2018, with an average annual growth rate of more than 10% over the past decade [1]
Compared with the ordinary e-bike (OEB) riders, delivery e-bike (DEB) riders, as an emerging e-bike rider group under the booming of e-commerce in China, have gained extensive attention due to their high involvement in traffic violation behaviors at intersections [8]. ere are at least 400 million delivery orders every week and around 7 million registered DEB riders in China [8, 9]
Considering that the peak delivery periods for DEB riders mainly focus on lunch and dinner, we filmed for a total of four hours at noon (11:00–13:00) and in the afternoon (17:00–1900, the travel peak of OEB riders) to capture more sample data of e-bikes crossing the street. ere were no external interventions, such as traffic police, assistants, or enforcement camera, to interfere with riders’ natural crossing behavior during the filming experiment in this study
Summary
Electric bikes (e-bikes), as an efficient mode of urban transportation, can facilitate the daily travel of urban dwellers and effectively alleviate the traffic emission problem. e number of e-bikes in China was 250 million in 2018, with an average annual growth rate of more than 10% over the past decade [1]. The traffic safety of e-bikes has attracted extensive attention mainly because e-bike riders are more likely to participate in traffic violations, especially red-light running at signalized intersections [2,3,4,5,6,7]. Bai et al compared and analyzed the traffic conflicts between e-bike riders and cyclists at signalized intersections and found that running red lights was the main cause of the conflict for e-bikes [4], and e-scooter riders were more likely to risk crossing the street [5]. Compared with the ordinary e-bike (OEB) riders, delivery e-bike (DEB) riders, as an emerging e-bike rider group under the booming of e-commerce in China, have gained extensive attention due to their high involvement in traffic violation behaviors at intersections [8]. In the first half of 2017, there were 3,242 traffic accidents involving DEB riders in Nanjing, with 2,473 injuries and more than 110 traffic accidents that occurred among DEB riders in Shanghai [9, 10]
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