Modelling Bicycle Infrastructure in SUMO

Abstract

Bicycle traffic is becoming an increasingly important part of urban traffic. Thus, the simulation and accurate representation of bicycle traffic in microscopic traffic simulation software is gaining importance. As bicycle traffic increases, dedicated bicycle infrastructure is designed to accommodate bicycle traffic. Especially at intersections, the design of intersection approaches follows specific rules and geometric limitations as defined by official design guidelines used in different countries across the world. However, when special environmental factors that affect the intersection layout, such as available space or gradient are not considered, specific standard forms of intersection approaches can be determined based on the number of traffic lanes, the traffic signal control and in the case of this study, the availability as well as the type of dedicated bicycle infrastructure. Categories with available bicycle infrastructure include the cases of bicycle lanes or advisory cycle lanes with advance stop lines for direct left turning bicyclists, the bicycle lanes or advisory bicycle lanes with bicycle boxes and bicycle lanes or bicycle paths with advanced stop lines and a stop area downstream for facilitating an indirect left turn or a two-stage (left) turn of bicyclists. The simulation of such bicycle infrastructure is not natively supported in microscopic traffic simulation software and is mostly only possible through intuitive adjustment of existing network design elements. In this paper, fictional intersections with special bicycle infrastructure are modelled in SUMO. Bicycle traffic data is collected at intersections in Germany with different types of bicycle infrastructure. The collected bicycle traffic data is then used to evaluate the intersection models. Specific recommendations for modelling bicycle infrastructure at intersection approaches in SUMO are provided, and limitations of the proposed methodologies and software limitations are discussed. Results show that the developed solutions can be used to model the bicycle traffic behavior with a reasonable degree of accuracy only for simulation scenarios and traffic situations unaffected by the identified software limitations.