Designing Maps for Bicycling Simulator Studies – three practical Approaches

Abstract. Bicycle simulator studies result from attempts of solving various novel problem statements of modern transportation-related research questions. Examples imply the evaluation of novel traffic control strategies for prioritizing urban bicycle traffic, novel bicycle infrastructure (such as bicycle highways) and the interaction and communication of vulnerable road users with automated or autonomous vehicles. As one of classical disciplines of transportation research, namely traffic engineering, and less related to human factors research, automotive research, geography, urban planning or citizen science, we want to point out those bicycle simulator studies design approaches, which are more related to testing novel traffic control strategies for cyclists, experiencing changing traffic-efficiency and –safety-related parameters in ongoing interfaced microscopic traffic flow simulations. We believe that this is a key factor in experiencing various traffic situations and the evaluation of thereof. In this research, we introduce three practical approaches of how to design maps for bicycling simulator studies. This is mainly resulting from manifold practical experiences from already conducted simulator studies beginning from the year 2018.