Using Virtual-Reality Technology to Improve Cycleway Design

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Virtual Reality technology

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Background

Building on previous research undertaken in 2013, Transport for NSW (Transport) tested the use of virtual reality (VR) technology to understand how to better design and integrate cycling infrastructure in urban and suburban environments. The aim of the research was to examine how people interested in cycling, but concerned about safety, could be enticed to cycle more often.

Current information about cycleway design can be found in Transport's Cycleway Design Toolbox (2020) which draws on the Cycling Aspects of Austroads Guides (2017 Edition). The Toolbox illustrates good, better and best practice at the NSW Government level about how streets might be reconfigured to better achieve desired outcomes.  

To strengthen the Toolbox, the University of NSW (UNSW) City Futures Research Centre used virtual reality as a means of evaluating possible design elements (i.e. infrastructure/facilities) based on their potential to be accepted or supported by cyclists. 

The Travel Choice Simulation Laboratory, (TRACSLab), located at UNSW, is a world-first in multi-modal, multi-user transportation visualisation.

The simulator enables study participants to virtually cycle or drive through urban transportation systems. By using the simulator, researchers were able to test various design interventions with participants and evaluate any impact these had on the participants’ behaviour.

Objectives

• Understand current best practice cycling facility design internationally and locally and to identify the design, transport, and built environment components that influence bike-ability
• Rigorously and empirically test, validate, and improve these best practice principles in location specific settings within Sydney through creating and testing a simulation / visualisation prototype to understand community (i.e. the interested but concerned cohort) preferences for cycling environments and facilities
• Use the relevant findings to create an open-source cycling facility classification matrix tool to enhance local and state governments’ active transport planning and design capabilities
• Provide Transport and other government agencies, with an improved evidence base to develop the next iteration of cycleway design guidelines.

Findings

The final reports of this research are presented below. Overall, the research concluded that:

• The ‘interested but concerned’ cohort expressed a clear preference for dedicated bicycle paths. Cycling infrastructure that provides exclusive cycling space separated from other traffic was rated as the most comfortable and preferred option amongst the three bicycle infrastructure options tested
• In environments tested, participants rated scenarios with dedicated paths to be significantly safer than the scenarios with the mixed traffic paths, regardless of whether the mixing was with vehicles or pedestrians
• Consistent with the above, participants stated a greater willingness to cycle on streets with dedicated bicycle paths.

The findings from this study underscore the role dedicated cycling infrastructure plays in attracting the 'Interested but Concerned' cohort. This group is typically focused on cycling safety and comfort, are hesitant about cycling in mixed traffic environments, and are more likely to be encouraged to bike ride when high-quality dedicated bicycle paths are available. The study outcomes emphasise the importance of investing in and prioritising cycling infrastructure to foster bicycling as an attractive and viable mode of transport.

Documentation

• Designing for the ‘Interested but Concerned’: A literature review on cycling infrastructure design (PDF, 3.52 MB)

  This literature review of international cycle-way design aims to understand the common practices and themes of current bicycle planning and consider these trends alongside Transport for NSW’s Cycleway Design Toolbox: Designing for Cycling and Micromobility. Focusing on plans that include specific infrastructure types and designs, rather than purely strategic or network plans, thirty-nine bicycle plans from twenty-two jurisdictions both nationally and internationally were reviewed.

• Interactively visualising street design scenarios for communicating bike infrastructure options to communities and policymakers – Executive Summary (PDF, 390.42 KB)
• Interactively visualising street design scenarios for communicating bike infrastructure options to communities and policymakers – Final Report (PDF, 4.61 MB) 

The bike simulator in action

This research was delivered in partnership with iMOVE CRC and supported by the Cooperative Research Centres program, an Australian Government initiative.