Improvement of Cycleway by Evaluating Road Environment and Estimating Bicycle Traffic Volume

The bicycle is widely used in Japan by people of all age groups, with daily frequency, which may significantly ease traffic congestion and reduce toxic gas emission from vehicles. Because of the increase in the number of cyclists, it is necessary to improve and develop cycleways in Japan. This study concentrated on improving the cycleways by using both the bicycle compatibility index (BCI) and four-step model (FSM) to select the road segments with the highest priority for improvement in Kumamoto City, Japan. The BCI was used to evaluate the road environment for cycling according to the road characteristics and land use types by means of a statistical analysis and a classification of the main roads into six compatibility levels. The FSM estimated the bicycle traffic volume on the links of the road network by GIS, and the bicycle traffic volume was expressed by the thickness of lines. As a result, based on the combined results from the BCI and FSM, eight road segments were identified as those with the highest priority for improvement (low compatibility levels and high bicycle traffic volume).