Condition assessment of cycle path texture and evenness using a bicycle measurement trailer

ABSTRACT

Cyclists’ riding comfort, related to pavement texture and unevenness, has not been thourougly investigated, partly due to the lack of condition assessment methods specifically adapted to the speed and space limits on cycle paths. Metrics that better describe the perceived comfort of cyclists, rather than that of car users, are needed. In this paper a novel method, the Bicycle Measurement Trailer (BMT), is proposed to bridge this gap. Eight different cycle path surface types have been assessed with regards to pavement texture and for four of these surfaces the longitudinal evenness was assessed. The accuracy and repeatability of the BMT were evaluated. Finally, five different metrics (Dynamic Comfort Index, Evenness Coefficient, 0.5 m Straight Edge, International Roughness Index and Root Mean Square), were calculated from the collected data and assessed. The main findings suggest that the BMT has a high accuracy at normal and high cycling speeds and a high level of repeatability at normal cycling speed. The surfaces could be ranked according to texture, and the evenness was successfully analysed. In conclusion, the BMT could be a valuable tool to assess the cycle path surface condition in relation to bicycle riding comfort.

KEYWORDS:

• Cycling comfort
• cycle paths
• road surface measurements
• surface evenness
• surface texture

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability

Data are available open access through the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license at the following DOI 10.5281/zenodo.7412703

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This research has been funded by Swedish Transport Administration through Grants TRV 2021/79526 (178472100) and TRV 2021/23527 (177029100), and by Mistra, Stiftelsen för Miljöstrategisk Forskning, grant number DIA 2016/28. The funders were not involved in the study design, i.e. in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the article for publication. The authors would like to thank Leif Sjögren, Harry Sörensen, Claudia Bratu and Linda Corper at VTI for their work on developing the BMT.