Thesis Project on Bike Route Preferences

3752 Views 5 Replies 6 Participants Last post by crazyjarhead, Nov 9, 2009

UVARoutePlanner

Discussion Starter · Nov 2, 2009

Our Senior Thesis Project at the University of Virginia is to create an urban bike route planner. We are surveying bikers about their road and route preferences. We ask you to provide as much information and detail as you can.

Do you avoid certain roads or intersections? Why?
What safety factors do you take into consideration when planning a route?
Do you sacrifice time and distance for safety, like roads with less traffic or bike lanes?
What is the speed limit of a preferred road?

We thank you for your time and input.

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Xela

· #2 · Nov 2, 2009

UVARoutePlanner said:
Our Senior Thesis Project at the University of Virginia is to create an urban bike route planner. We are surveying bikers about their road and route preferences. We ask you to provide as much information and detail as you can.

Do you avoid certain roads or intersections? Why?
What safety factors do you take into consideration when planning a route?
Do you sacrifice time and distance for safety, like roads with less traffic or bike lanes?
What is the speed limit of a preferred road?

We thank you for your time and input.

Around here, it's really a trade-off. If you want a decent shoulder, it's usually a 50 mph zone with more traffic. If you want a country road with less traffic, there is not a shoulder at all. I actually prefer the roads with no shoulder and less traffic. The speed limits on these roads vary from 35 to 55, but driver's seem to not worry as much about "limits" on these types of roads.

There are only a few intersections around here I avoid, and the reason for the avoidance is that my bike doesn't set off the light, so I have to run the red to turn left and the cross-traffic is usually heavy.

I definitely would sacrifice time and distance for safety. Do it on just about every route I ride.

Some cities around here have recently started putting in some bike lanes. But I don't see drivers treating them any different that a regular shoulder, and the bike lanes usually just collect road debris and gravel.

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joker

· #3 · Nov 2, 2009

UVARoutePlanner said:
Do you avoid certain roads or intersections? Why?
What safety factors do you take into consideration when planning a route?
Do you sacrifice time and distance for safety, like roads with less traffic or bike lanes?
What is the speed limit of a preferred road?

We thank you for your time and input.

I do avoid both certain roads and intersections. The roads I will avoid are the very highly travelled by cars with lots of distractions (driveways, side streets, etc) which is not in favor of a cyclist. The intersections are uncontrolled or just have a stop sign in the direction I am going and make it difficult to get through.

I look for roads with a good shoulder and minimum distractions as listed above.

Yes I will sacrifice both time and distance to take a safer route. It doesn't do any good to take a shorter route if your odds of arriving in one piece are less.

I really don't think there is a speed limit on a preferred road. I really feel it comes down to the amount of distractions. I would rather ride along the freeway knowing that the cars beside me no matter how fast they are going are going to continue to go straight, as long as I have a way to get past the exits safely. In town riding I feel is much more dangerous with cars turning and not paying attention to the cyclists around them.

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funetical

· #4 · Nov 2, 2009

UVARoutePlanner said:
Our Senior Thesis Project at the University of Virginia is to create an urban bike route planner. We are surveying bikers about their road and route preferences. We ask you to provide as much information and detail as you can.

Do you avoid certain roads or intersections? Why?
What safety factors do you take into consideration when planning a route?
Do you sacrifice time and distance for safety, like roads with less traffic or bike lanes?
What is the speed limit of a preferred road?

We thank you for your time and input.

1. Yes traffic.
2. Not getting hit. Congestion of road, Size of Bike lane. Pot holes.
3.Yes
4.35-45 though I prefer biking in residential whenever possible.

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TxCyclist

· #5 · Nov 2, 2009

UVARoutePlanner said:
Do you avoid certain roads or intersections? Why?
What safety factors do you take into consideration when planning a route?
Do you sacrifice time and distance for safety, like roads with less traffic or bike lanes?
What is the speed limit of a preferred road?

1. Absolutely. Safety and time to get thru them.
2. The amount of car traffic and the design of the road in relation to difficulty for drivers to see me and get around me.
3. Yes I do, everyday.
4. 30 in-town.

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crazyjarhead

· #6 · Nov 9, 2009

1. Absolutely avoid certain roads - usually because of traffic load and/or lack of bike lane.
2. Availability of bike lane/wide shoulder, visibility, cross traffic, traffic load.
3. I will go way out of my way to avoid certain areas.
4. Speed limit is down on my list. I ride on several highways with wide shoulders and 65 limit. I also ride residential streets with bike lanes and 25-30 limit.

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