A macroscopic flow model for mixed bicycle-car traffic

Bicycles are gaining popularity as a mode of transport resulting in a mixed bicycle-car traffic situation on urban roads. Cyclists, however, are hardly included in traffic flow models which complicates the design of safe and congestion-free traffic situations. This work introduces class-specific speed functions based on two variables, being space headway for both cars and cyclists. This enables the macroscopic modelling of mixed bicycle-car traffic. The multi-class macroscopic flow model is successfully tested for different traffic situations that occur on urban roads where cyclists and cars share the same infrastructure, e.g. cyclists overtaking a queue of cars and cars overtaking cyclists with reduced speed. The mixed bicycle-car flow model allows travel time estimation of both classes, which in turn can be used to evaluate the overall performance of a mixed traffic road.