Female Cyclist Users of the Thames Valley Parkway in London Ontario
Gorski Consulting has been monitoring various aspects of cycling in London Ontario for over a decade. One area of interest has been the apparent lack of ridership by females and what may be the cause. Recent documentations along London’s Thames Valley Parkway allow for further analysis of this issue.
Over the years Gorski Consulting has conducted a number of videotaping sessions in London which have documented the numbers of cyclists, pedestrians and non-pedestrians. A table of some of these documentations is shown below.
Comparing the numbers of cyclists to pedestrians the hourly average noted at the bottom the table shows about 15 cyclists and 36 pedestrians. However this average is misleading. A quick glance at the last two sessions (“19-Springbank Park at Storybook Gardens” and “20-Gibbons Park at Victoria”) documented very large numbers of pedestrians versus cyclists. The rest of the sessions however suggest more evenly matched frequencies. Never-the-less this data provides some general idea of the historic numbers of users of various facilities in London by cyclists and pedestrians.
With respect to females our data has indicated some unexplained results with respect to the numbers of female cyclists observed riding next to the right-of-ways of roads in London. The table below shows some data that was created from photos taken of cyclists riding on or next to the City’s roads from the year 2013 through to the end of 2021.
It can be seen in the above table that the percentage of female cyclists has been consistently low compared to the overall number of observed cyclists. The overall average of just 14.51% should cause us to wonder why this is so low and what may be the cause of this result. As indicated before, it is advantageous to the well-being of the City of London, and generally the Province of Ontario, Canada and worldwide that cycling become a more dominant form of transportation. If male cyclists are the predominate users of this mode then we are missing the opportunity of advancing cycling to much-needed, higher levels.
More recent observations of cyclists have been preformed by Gorski Consulting including observations along the City’s Thames Valley Parkway (TVP). The TVP is a multi-user path system that generally follows the forks of the Thames River. City-wide it is possible to ride about 40 kilometres in a circular fashion around the City or along selected legs of the path network.
From our viewpoint the TVP appears to be a very busy transportation network for cyclists and pedestrians. In fact our analysis suggests that it is the most-used network by both cyclists and pedestrians in London.
The results of more-recent documentations of cyclists and pedestrians along the TVP are shown in the table below. The sessions in this table are all from 2-hour documentations by multiple video cameras. The table is separated into observations of cyclists and pedestrians.
The above table includes the very recent results from the Blackfriars Bridge Traffic Study (BBTS) which is incomplete. Data about the numbers of pedestrians in the BBTS have not yet been completed but total pedestrian observations have been included.
In the last column of the above table are some interesting results of about the percentage of females observed in these sessions. Looking at the cyclist observations the percentage of observed females is about 26%. While this is low, it is substantially higher than the average of 14.51% observed on City roads (2013-2021) shown in the previous table.
Another interesting finding is with respect to the percentage of female pedestrians documented at the same time and location as the cyclists. No calculations exist yet from the BBTS but of the four remaining sessions the average number of observed female pedestrians is 48.95%, or essentially equal to the number of males.
In summary, our data shows that, historically, very female cyclists are observed riding on or adjacent to City roads, but the numbers of female cyclists riding along the TVP seems to be higher. And the number of female pedestrians observed along the TVP is almost equal to males. What do these results mean?
For readers it may mean that some basic conclusions may be possible? For us it means that more data will be collected.
Blackfriars Bridge Traffic Study – Exploring Traffic Conflicts
This article presents an example of a traffic conflict at the site of the Blackfriars Bridge Traffic Study in London, Ontario. Its intent is to explain how such traffic conflicts can be identified and analysed using the video data that has been obtained in the traffic study.
This example involved a northbound female cyclist riding on the Thames Valley Parkway (TVP) and approaching the pedestrian crossing zone at the east end of Blackfriars Bridge. At the same time an eastbound passenger car was crossing Blackfriars Bridge and approaching the pedestrian crossing at the TVP. The incident occurred at approximately 1632 hours during Session #2 on June 17, 2022.
With respect to the car, video cameras captured its travel passing by several markers painted on the road. This allowed the calculation of the vehicle’s speed at several distances approaching the crosswalk. Similarly, video cameras also captured the cycle crossing several markers and speeds of the cycle could also be obtained on approach to the crosswalk.
The photo below shows the cyclist passing the painted marker at 20 metres south of the pedestrian crossing.
The cyclist is then observed passing the marker at 10 metres south of the crossing, seen in the photo below,
It took 2.27 seconds for the cyclist to travel the 10 metre distance between the 20 and 10-metre-markers and therefore her average speed over that distance was 4.41 metres per second (m/s) or 15.86 kilometres per hour (km/h).
In the above photo it can be seen that the cyclist has her head turned slightly to the left and it would be expected that she might be looking for approaching traffic on the road. At the same time there is a pedestrian walking on the sidewalk within her line of sight and this pedestrian may have provided some blockage of her view of traffic on the road.
The photo below shows an eastward view along Blackfriars Bridge and we can see the approaching car which is positioned at the “10-metre-west” marker, or 10 metres west of the west edge of the pedestrian crossing. Note that same pedestrian can be seen on the sidewalk.
Looking at the car’s speed we noted that it was travelling at 24.19 km/h between the 60 and 35-metre-markers. It then reduced its speed to 22.90 km/h between the 35 and 10-metre-markers.
The photo below now shows the cyclist at the south edge of the pedestrian crossing. We noted that, between the 10-metre-marker and the south edge of the road her average speed was 13.19 km/h. Her speed was reduced further to 12.15 km/h in the distance she travelled through the pedestrian crossing. Given the small speed loss it is likely that this occurred from typical rolling resistance rather than from any braking.
Within the distance of 10 metres of approach to the west edge of the pedestrian crossing the car’s average speed was 18.27 km/h. While this is a reduction in speed of about 3.5 km/h from the previous segment the speed loss is not large. There is a substantial upslope of the road at this location so the speed loss could be from that source.
The photo below shows a view looking east at 35 metres west of the pedestrian crossing. Here we can see the taillights of the car and the brake lights are not illuminated.
Another view from the rear of the car is shown below as the cyclist travels across the vehicle’s path. Again no brake lights are illuminated.
In the next two photos we can see the gap between the front of the car and the left side of the cycle as the two units pass by each other.
The pedestrian crossing is 3.92 metres wide and the cyclist is riding generally in the middle of the crossing so it is about 2 metres away from the west edge of the crossing. Yet the shadow from the front end of the car shows that it has crossed over the west edge of the pedestrian crossing. So the front end of the car must be slightly less than 2 metres away from the cyclist as the two units pass each other. Yet, as mentioned before, there is no evidence of braking by the driver whose vehicle travels at an average speed of 17.21 km/h or 4.78 m/s within the pedestrian crossing. At this speed of 4.78 m/s the front end of the car, positioned where it is shown in the above photo, could reach the location of the cyclist in less than 2 metres or less than 0.4 seconds. So this has to be viewed as a “near miss” or a collision that was just barely avoided.
We would want to search for instances like these in the video analysis. What is the probability that a collision could occur at this location and what could be the consequences of such a collision?
The summary table below was shown in a previous article and provides the broad numbers of traffic units documented during our three Sessions.
The total number of eastbound vehicles passing through the site was only 346 over the period of 6 hours of documentation, or about 57.7 vehicles per hour. This is a low volume and one might be quick to suggest that dangers of a collision involving a motor vehicle are likely low. Yet the above table also shows that 1290 other units comprised of cyclists, pedestrians and non-pedestrians were also documented in that 6 hour period, or about 215 units per hour. Thus the volume of the non-motor-vehicle units is almost four times as large as the number of motor vehicles. Thus the argument could be made that, although few motor vehicles exist, when the do exist they are likely to encounter these other units. These other units are much more likely to be injured if a collision occurs. Thus this risk and danger needs to be kept in mind when considering the suitability of allowing motor vehicle traffic on the Blackfriars Bridge.
Blackfriars Bridge Traffic Study – Session #3 Results
Results from Session #3 of the Blackfriars Bridge Traffic Study (BBTS) have now been completed with respect to motor vehicle, cyclist and pedestrians volumes. Documentation in Session #3 occurred between 0648 and 0848 hours. Overall fewer observations were made in Session #3 compared to Sessions #1 and #2. The following tables will summarize the findings.
The first table below shows a comparison of the results from all three Sessions.
Some minor corrections were made to the previously mentioned data as it was discovered that the data collection sheets for cyclists and pedestrians was missing a “29” and the rows were labelled 28 then 30. Thus the total number of observations erroneously indicated one more observation. This correction has resulted in reduced totals by one observation in several cells.
With respect to motor vehicles the 112 observations in Session #3 was substantially lower than the 157 in Session #2 but substantially higher than the 77 in Session #1. With respect to the remaining observations (Cyclists, Pedestrians and Non-Pedestrians) all cells showed smaller frequencies than the first two Sessions.
Recall that “Non-Pedestrians” are those observed to be riding objects such as scooters, skateboards, roller-blades, medical carts, wheelchairs, etc. that do not fit into the three basic categories of motor-vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians. In Session #3 only two Non-Pedestrians were observed: a male riding an e-scooter northbound on Ridout continuing westbound on the cycling lane of Blackfriars Bridge, and a male who was observed carrying his skateboard southbound across the pedestrian crossing and then jumping on the board just south of the crossing and continuing to ride southbound on the TVP. This seems quite minimal compared to the 25 and 29 observations of Non-Pedestrians in the previous two Sessions.
The next table below shows the distribution of cyclist actions in Session #3 as they passed through the site. As explained previously, the “Source” column indicates the direction from which the cyclist entered the study area and the remaining three columns indicate where the cyclist travelled upon leaving the study area. Similar tables have been shown in the previous articles discussing the previous two Sessions.
Given the early start in the morning (0648 hours) it is possible that the beginning of the session did not capture the morning peak of traffic and this is suggested in the following table which breaks down the frequencies of cyclist arrivals at the study site every 10 minutes. The data suggests that (at least) in the first 20 minutes until 0708 hours the number of cyclist observations was quite low (4 and 6 respectively).
The next table shows the data for pedestrian observations.
Similar to the cyclist observations the pedestrian volumes appeared to be low in the early part of the morning as shown in the table below which shows pedestrians arrivals at 15 minute intervals. It may be reasonable to say that pedestrian volumes up to 0733 hours were low (5, 6 and 8 observations respectively) in the first three 15-minute segments.
And finally a similar summary for motor vehicles suggests a low volume in the early part of the morning, as shown in the table below which shows motor vehicle arrivals at the study area at 10-minute intervals.
The above findings might suggest that the peak volume of traffic units at the site does not begin until sometime around 0730 hours. This may provide some explanation for the lower numbers of observations of all traffic units in Session #3.
In summary, there is still considerable variability in the volumes of the various traffic units from one Session to another. Yet we are starting to see a general range in those volumes. More data should help to stabilize this variance.
We have yet to discuss traffic conflicts in our study. This cannot be done until we conduct calculations of the approach speeds of the traffic units and this is likely to take considerable time. Some discussion of the methods/procedures of evaluating traffic conflicts will require a separate article in which we can use an example of how this analysis could take place.
For the future it is expected that (at least) another documentation Session will take place in the not too distant future. This documentation will occur early in the work week, perhaps a Monday or a Tuesday and the timing should be somewhere near noon to 1400 hours. Please stay connected as to these further developments.
Gorski Consulting Site Up & Running After Issues
The Gorski Consulting website has been down for several days but is now up and running. Welcome back.
Blackfriars Bridge Traffic Study Session #3 Completed
An example of one of the 10 video cameras that were used on July 6, 2022 to document users of the Blackfriars Bridge and Thames Valley Parkway in London, Ontario.
Session #3 of the Blackfriars Bridge Traffic Study (BBTS) was completed this morning, July 6, 2022, between 0700 and 0900 hours. This data will be revealing as it comes from the morning peak (rush) hours in the middle of a work week. We are now in the process of copying and shrinking the videos to enable insertion into our Adobe Premiere video-editting program. This should take a couple of days.
There are always unusual situations that arise when conducting such observations. In this Session a sidewalk sweeper appeared at the site travelling northbound on the Thames Valley Parkway (TVP), as shown in the photo below.
Larger vehicles such as this sidewalk sweeper are needed to maintain the trail yet they pose safety problems since the Thames Valley Parkway (TVP) in not meant to accommodate such vehicles.
The narrow confides of the TVP make it difficult for units like this sweeper to conduct its maintenance activities in safety, as shown in the photo below.
On the steep downgrade of the TVP just north of Blackfriars Bridge a cyclist may not see a maintenance sweeper in sufficient time to avoid it, particularly in this section that is also quite narrow. Practical difficulties such as these need to be highlighted to warn cyclists and pedestrians so that they can be on the lookout.
It is important to document any safety-related problems in an unbiased and clear way. Some conflicts may be inevitable but if we done not identify them we will never know if some can be done to lessen their consequences. Once the basic volumes of traffic units have been reasonably well established at the Blackfriars Bridge we will be able to look more closely at some of these potential conflicts. Stay tuned for more data…
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