California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology

This project was created as a follow-on to PATH Task Order 6203, to extend the studies of bicyclist signal timing that were conducted in that project to a wider range of intersections and traffic signal control scenarios. This work is motivated by the legal requirement, instituted by the California Legislature, that the road network provide equal service to bicyclists as it does to motorists. Based on the preliminary findings from Task Order 6203, Caltrans issued Traffic Operations Policy Directive (TOPD) No. 09-06 effective September 10, 2009, including guidance on signal timing to serve bicyclists. Additional field measurement data on bicyclist intersection crossing behavior were needed to verify that the preliminary findings from TO 6203 would remain applicable for more diverse intersections in different parts of the state, with a full range of bicycling populations and traffic conditions. Furthermore, because questions were raised about the potentially adverse traffic impacts of providing longer minimum green times on all signal phases to meet bicyclists’ needs, more extensive traffic simulations were needed to quantify the traffic impacts of a variety of signal control strategies in coordinated corridors, where the signal progressions could potentially be disrupted.