Cyclists' mobility and subjective safety in shared urban spaces - a simulator study

The growing adoption of human-centered urban design initiatives in city planning has enhanced attention to cyclists' mobility, safety, and overall travel experience. The effort often results in urban spaces with mixed traffic and it is essential to explore how cyclists behave and perceive their safety in these environments where they more frequently interact with other road users. This study investigates how infrastructure design and traffic volume influence cyclist behavior and subjective safety in a shared paths environment and in unsignalized intersections. Using a cycling simulator, we applied a full factorial design with three two-level (high/low) attributes for each environment: path widths, pedestrian and bicycle flow in shared paths, and vehicle speeds, pedestrian and bicycle flow at unsignalized intersections. Average cycling speed and fixation rate on road users were used as behavioral indicators whereas self-reported perceived unsafety and stress were used as subjective safety indicators. An ordinary least square and ordinal logistic regression model was used to analyze behavioral and subjective safety indicators. Overall, 49 participants completed the experiment. This study quantifies how wider shared paths, higher vehicle speed at unsignalized intersections, and higher pedestrian or bicycle flow in both environments led to lower average cycling speeds and decreased subjective safety. Results show that on shared paths, path width primarily affects cycling speed, while bicycle flow impacts perceived safety. At unsignalized intersections, vehicle speed is the most influential factor for both cycling speed and perceived safety.