Determination and application of standard K factors for bicycle traffic

Abstract

This research is concerned with the calculation and application of the design hour factor, also known as the K factor, for bicycle traffic. Two variations of the K factor were developed. The first variation was referred to as Kp/d and was calculated as the ratio between the peak hour volume and the total daily volume. The second variation was referred to as Kp/AADB and was computed as the ratio of the daily peak hour volume to the annual average daily bicycle volume (AADB). An application was presented on how to use the developed K factors to calculate the AADB, and the estimation accuracy of using the two variations of the K factor was assessed. Five groups of the K factors were calculated according to different criteria. The results showed that the Kp/d factors classified by groups of similar links, weekdays and weekends, and year led to the best results where the average estimation error of the daily bicycle volume was about 16.6%. Furthermore, the use of the best set of Kp/d factors along with daily and monthly adjustment factors for the estimation of the AADB value led to an average estimation error of 28.3%. Conversely, the set of Kp/AADB factors classified by weekdays and weekends, month, and year led to the lowest estimation error with an average of 28.9%. The paper provides insights on the selection of data collection days and months, which could improve the design of data collection programs of bicycle traffic.