A Bicycle Origin–Destination Matrix Estimation Based on a Two-Stage Procedure

Abstract

As more people choose to travel by bicycle, transportation planners are beginning to recognize the need to rethink the way they evaluate and plan transportation facilities to meet local mobility needs. A modal shift towards bicycles motivates a change in transportation planning to accommodate more bicycles. However, the current methods to estimate bicycle volumes on a transportation network are limited. The purpose of this research is to address those limitations through the development of a two-stage bicycle origin–destination (O–D) matrix estimation process that would provide a different perspective on bicycle modeling. From the first stage, a primary O–D matrix is produced by a gravity model, and the second stage refines that primary matrix generated in the first stage using a Path Flow Estimator (PFE) to build the finalized O–D demand. After a detailed description of the methodology, the paper demonstrates the capability of the proposed model for a bicycle demand matrix estimation tool with a real network case study.