Modelling Bicycle Infrastructure in SUMO

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

Verkehrsablauf an signalisierten Knotenpunkten mit hohem Radverkehrsaufkommen

Der Beitrag beschreibt Untersuchungen des Verkehrsablaufs und Erweiterungen für das Berechnungsverfahren zur Bemessung nach dem Handbuch für die Bemessung von Straßenverkehrsanlagen (HBS 2015) für signalisierte Knotenpunkte mit hohem Radverkehrsaufkommen. Zur Analyse des Verkehrsablaufs wurden empirische Untersuchungen des Fahrverhaltens von Radfahrenden und Kfz an ausgewählten Knotenpunkten durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse wurden für die Kalibrierung und die Validierung von mikroskopischen Simulationsmodellen genutzt, die zur Erzeugung von Daten für die Ergänzung des Berechnungsverfahrens eingesetzt wurden. Die Erweiterungen umfassen Ansätze zur Ermittlung von Kapazitäten im Radverkehr und im Kfz-Verkehr, der vom Radverkehr behindert wird

Traffic flow at signalized intersections with large volumes of bicycle traffic

The popularity of utilitarian bicycling is increasing in many urban areas. As a result, growing volumes of bicycle traffic on road networks have significant impacts on traffic flow and the capacity of vehicular traffic, particularly at intersections. The goal of this paper is to quantify the impact of large volumes of bicycle traffic on the capacity of signalized intersections concerning vehicular streams crossing the intersection, turning right, and turning left. Empirical studies are conducted to gain insight into the speed, acceleration, queue density, queue discharge, and conflict zone occupancy time of bicycle traffic. Data were collected at sites with varying infrastructure designs and bicycle traffic volumes. The results of the empirical studies are used to assess the effects of bicycle infrastructure on traffic efficiency and build, calibrate, and validate microscopic traffic simulation models. The bicycle traffic volume is incrementally increased in the simulation models to supplement the data from the empirical studies. Based on the empirical findings and simulation results, the average queue discharge time per bicyclist based on the facility width is derived and two factors for the reduction in the capacity of vehicular traffic turning left and turning right based on the actual green time ratio and the volume of crossing bicycle traffic are proposed. If a bike box is present on an intersection approach, findings show that crossing bicycle traffic has a negligible effect on the capacity of crossing vehicular traffic, which bicyclists turning left impede vehicular traffic

The State of Bicycle Modeling in SUMO

Microscopic traffic simulation tools provide ever-increasing value in the design and implementation of motor vehicle transport systems. Research and development of automated and intelligent technologies have highlighted the usefulness of simulation tools and develop-ment efforts have accelerated in recent years. However, the majority of traffic simulation soft-ware is developed with a focus on motor vehicle traffic and has limited capabilities in the sim-ulation of bicycles and other micro-mobility modes. Bicycles, e-bikes and cargo bikes represent a non-negligible modal share in many urban areas and their impact on the operation, efficiency and safety of traffic systems must be considered in any comprehensive study. The Differenti-ation between different types of micro-mobility modes, including microcars, e-kick scooters, different types of bicycles and other personal mobility devices, has not yet attracted enough attention in the development of simulation software which creates difficulties in including these modes in simulation-based studies. On November 25th, 2022, members of the SUMO team at DLR organized a workshop to assess the state of bicycle simulation in SUMO, identify short-comings and missing capabilities and prioritize the order in which bicycle traffic related features should be modified or implemented in the future. In this paper, different aspects of simulating bicycle traffic in SUMO are examined and an overview of the results of the workshop discus-sions is given. Some suggestions for the future development of SUMOemerging from this workshop,are presented as a conclusion

Traffic Simulation Analysis of Bicycle Highways in Urban Areas

The ongoing increase of bicycle traffic in urban areas forces transport authorities to reconsider the space allocation for different transport modes. Transport policies favor the introduction of high-quality bicycle infrastructure along urban corridors to improve the traffic quality and safety for bicyclists but more importantly to increase the attractiveness of bicycling and over vehicular modes. Especially in urban areas with an already established high and steadily increasing share of bicyclists, the introduction of bicycle highways is considered to further alleviate saturated interurban public transport and motor vehicle connections and increase the average traveled distance by non-motorized modes. Due to the expensive implementation costs and the space restrictions in already built-up urban environments, there should be an extensive planning phase for defining the expected changes in traffic efficiency and safety. However, the effects of urban bicycle highways on traffic performance metrics of bicyclists as well as other road users are not thoroughly studied. This paper aims to quantify and assess the potential effects of urban bicycle highway on road users. The study considers a possible inner-city pilot route in the city of Munich, where the present bicycle infrastructure is planned to be upgraded to a bicycle highway. A simulation model is designed using traffic data from field observations and future estimates for the traffic composition. Through microscopic traffic simulation, the potential effects of the introduced infrastructure on road users are determined for different study scenarios. Results show that traffic quality thresholds for bicycle highways, as defined in official guidelines, can only be fulfilled through the implementation of special bicycle traffic control measures such as bicycle coordination or bicycle passage time extension. Finally, unidirectional bicycle highways together with bicycle passage time extension provided the best overall traffic performance for bicycle traffic and motor vehicle traffic

SUMO User Conference 2019

SUMO2019:Editor's Preface This volume contains the papers presented at the SUMO Conference 2019 Simulating Connected Urban Mobility. The conference was held in Berlin from 13-15 May 2019. The goal of the conference was to present new results in the field of mobility simulation and modelling using traffic tools and data which are open available.There were 32 submissions. Each submission was reviewed by at least 2 program committee members. The committee decided to accept 22 papers. Traffic simulations have a high value for traffic research studies. New traffic strategies can be tested and evaluated in advance with little costs. For realistic simulation results a complex traffic simulation framework is needed. One microscopic traffic simulation for this purpose is the open source tool Eclipse SUMO (Simulation of open mobility) which is available since 2001. SUMO provides a wide range of transport planning and modelling applications. The major topic of the 7th SUMO conference is the simulation of connected vehicles. This volume contains articles about simulator coupling, connected and automated Vehicles. Furthermore, the journal includes also papers about new algorithms for traffic light systems and new applications for the simulation of other traffic modes or reinforcement learning strategies. We would like to thank EasyChair for the conference support and its helpfull conference management tool. Laura Bieker-Walz Melanie Weber Robert Hilbrich Michael Behrisch July 24, 2019 Berli