ORCID Identifier(s)

0000-0001-9156-4618

Graduation Semester and Year

2016

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Civil Engineering

Department

Civil Engineering

First Advisor

Stephen P Mattingly

Abstract

The revival in the number of bicyclists, bike infrastructure investments and bike policies in the U.S. in the last two decades has escalated the importance of bicycling as a mode of transportation. With the proliferating role of the bicycle mode, bike fatalities continue to grow, too. In response to the increase in fatalities and crashes caused by human driven vehicles, the automobile industry and governments seek to develop autonomous vehicles that can address most of the human related crash causes. While increasing safety remains the primary goal of autonomous vehicles (AV) innovation, the difficulty of bicyclist and pedestrian detection using sensor based techniques, poses a potential threat to AV adoption. Connected vehicle technology for AVs offers an array of safety and non-safety applications for vehicles. Hence, this research examines the necessity to bring bicyclists into the same connected environment as AVs and the options available to accomplish this connectivity. The research also provides insight into bicyclists’ perception towards AVs and their opinion on buying a device to provide this connectivity with AVs. The survey results indicate that most of the bicyclists consider safety as their top priority while bicycling; as a result, they invest in safety equipment for themselves and their bicycle. Although most of the bicyclists are skeptical about the operation of AVs on roads, they express a willingness to opt for a bike-mountable device that communicates with AVs for detection of bicyclists. Based on a logistic regression model using the survey data, the frequency of bicycling, investment in some types of safety equipment and the price of the device influence the willingness to adopt this device.

Keywords

Bicycles, Bicycle safety, Autonomous vehicles, Connected vehicles, Bicyclists

Disciplines

Civil and Environmental Engineering | Civil Engineering | Engineering

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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