Virtual reality imaging technology, traffic cameras and lidar imagery — plus chalk and pool noodles — helped Rutgers University researchers evaluate temporary bike lanes in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
Installing a bike lane can range from $5,000 per mile just to install lanes on the road to millions for extensive road reconstruction, landscaping and barricades. How can the city assess whether the proposed bike path will meet the needs of all transportation users? Start with a temporary one and evaluate it before building the real thing. Rutgers University researchers collaborated with Asbury Park, New Jersey to accomplish just that using a combination of high- and low-tech strategies.
The effort was part of a micromobility project in which the coastal city is working with Rutgers to increase the use of bicycles and scooters in mixed transportation and develop the city’s bicycle network. The installation covered a two-block section leading to the road parallel to the city promenade.
Using traffic cones, stencils and spray chalk — as well as pool noodles to maintain the proper distance from the curb — researchers set up test bike lanes in April. They recorded the user experience of bikes and e-scooters before and after installing a bike path with eye-tracking glasses and galvanic skin response sensors that record stress levels. The footage and lidar scans allowed them to simulate the micromobility driver’s experience onsite through a virtual reality headset in the campus’ VR lab. Traffic camera footage provided additional information on interactions between bicycles, scooters, cars, buses and pedestrians.
A temporary bike lane in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
Permit issued by Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition
The pop-up bike lanes ran for several weeks in April, and researchers surveyed community residents about their experiences using them.
Defining the bike lane — particularly the use of traffic cones to create tighter turning radii at intersections — succeeded in encouraging slower speeds and safer riding, the researchers reported, but the cones tipped over in high winds, so they recommended permanent barriers at those intersections. Bicycle paths also proved to be popular among surveyed residents, and around 90% of respondents supported their permanent installation.
Polli Schildge of the Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition said the strip, while “positively received, was a little unclear.” People didn’t get it. When they were directed to it, they felt more comfortable there.”
The research team concluded that virtual simulation “has major limitations” in such research. “Riding a scooter is difficult to simulate virtually,” it said, and some users experienced nausea-like nausea when using the VR headset. “However, the 3D digital environment is very useful for modeling potential changes in the built environment,” the report said.
In addition to making recommendations for permanent changes to the roads and intersections studied, the researchers shared lessons learned from their project:
The researchers noted that they did not inform the bus drivers how to adjust the operation where the cycle path passed in front of the bus stop. Although the design allowed the bus to enter the bike lane to pick up and drop off passengers at the curb in front of the stop, some riders did not stop. Rutgers project head Leigh Ann Von Hagen said, “It’s something that definitely needs to be worked on.”
Rutgers is evaluating the project before the city decides whether to build a permanent bike lane at the site. The temporary strip was not resumed during the summer. “That was a little disappointing,” said Rutgers postdoctoral research associate Hannah Younes. Asbury Park “did not want to do construction work during the summer because it [involves] a busy intersection.”
