Transactions on Transport Sciences 2018, 9(1):3-17 | DOI: 10.5507/tots.2018.006

Analysing cyclist behaviour at cycling facility discontinuities using video data

Matin S. Nabavi Niakia, Nicolas Saunierb, Luis F. Miranda-Morenoc
a PhD Candidate, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, 2900 Boulevard Edouard-Montpetit, Montreal H3T 1J4, Canada
b Associate professor, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, 2900 Boulevard Edouard-Montpetit, Montreal H3T 1J4, Canada
c Associate professor, McGill University, 817 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal H3A 2K6, Canada

The primary purpose of any transportation network is to provide connectivity between the origin and travel destination. However, given the vehicle oriented structure of the road network in many countries, there are connectivity issues in the cycling network, which has been implemented later. Discontinuities are physical interruptions in the cycling network where cyclists are faced with unexpected situations such as the end of a cycling facility or the change from one facility type to another that are perceived as inconvenient and less safe. The microscopic behaviour of cyclists and the risks they face at these points of discontinuity has not been extensively investigated in the literature. This study aims to evaluate the challenges faced by cyclists at discontinuities by observing cyclist behaviour at these locations and comparing them to control sites using automated video analysis techniques. Our methodology allows the extraction of valuable microscopic data for evaluation of cyclist behaviour at any location. The methodology is applied to a case study of four sites in Montreal, Canada.

Using a set of discontinuity measures proposed in a previous work and applied to Montreal's cycling network, video data was collected from a pole-mounted camera at locations with discontinuity and control sites. After extracting road user trajectories from the video data, a trajectory clustering algorithm was applied to find cyclists' motion patterns and the various maneuver strategies adopted by cyclists. Speeds and acceleration statistics are extracted and compared between different motion patterns and between discontinuity and control sites. Results show that cyclists undertake a larger number of maneuvers at points of discontinuity compared to their control sites, and that both cyclist accelerations and speeds exhibit larger variations at discontinuities compared to larger and more stable speeds at control sites.

Keywords: Cyclist behaviour, discontinuity, motion pattern learning, video analysis, speed analysis, trajectory clustering

Received: December 1, 2017; Accepted: May 16, 2018; Published: June 26, 2018  Show citation

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Nabavi Niaki, M.S., Saunier, N., & Miranda-Moreno, L.F. (2018). Analysing cyclist behaviour at cycling facility discontinuities using video data. Transactions on Transport Sciences, 9(1), 3-17. doi: 10.5507/tots.2018.006
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