pacific nw transportation consortium region 10 Pactrans

Measuring, Managing, and Reducing Pavement Macrotexture and Roughness to Improve Cyclists’ Safety and Ride Quality

PI: Erdem Coleri (OSU), erdem.coleri@oregonstate.edu, ORCID: 0000-0002-1904-878XU

Co PIs: none

AMOUNT & MATCH: $40,000 from PacTrans; $40,000 Match

PERFORMANCE PERIOD: 3/16/2021 – 3/15/2022

STATUS: Completed

CATEGORIES: Pavement, Roughness, Cyclist, Bike

RESEARCH PROJECT HOT SHEET:

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DESCRIPTION: This research would have three objectives: i) determine the impact of pavement-related factors on cyclists’ ride quality; ii) identify routes with lower ride quality; and iii) provide suggestions and guidelines to improve user comfort. The research tasks are:

1) Identification of routes with high and low ride quality: Bike trips with cyclists will be organized in Benton County. A short survey will be conducted with the cyclists to determine the routes with high and low ride quality based on the responses.

2) Identification of factors affecting bicycle ride quality: Macrotexture (by sand patch test), International Roughness Index (by Surpro and/or inertial profiler), and bicycle vibration (by a three-axis accelerometer installed on different types of bicycles) data for the sections identified in Task 1 will be collected.

3) Surveys of bicycle ride quality: Bicycle rides on the selected routes will be scheduled with several cyclists in the region. After bicycle rides, surveys will be conducted with the cyclists to determine cyclists’ demographics and perception of ride quality.

4) Data analysis: By conducting statistical analysis using the data collected in Tasks 2 and 3, the correlations between macrotexture, roughness, and vibrations and cyclists’ perception of ride quality will be determined. Based on the results of statistical analysis, texture and roughness thresholds to achieve acceptable and high cyclist comfort levels will be determined.