Riding the Green Wave – How Countdown Timers at Bicycle Traffic Lights Impact on Cycling Behavior

Christina Brand, Thomas Hagedorn, Till Kösters, Marlena Meier, Gernot Sieg and Jan Wessel
Additional contact information
Christina Brand: Institute of Transport Economics, Muenster
Thomas Hagedorn: Institute of Transport Economics, Muenster
Marlena Meier: Institute of Transport Economics, Muenster

No 37, Working Papers from Institute of Transport Economics, University of Muenster

Abstract: The Leezenflow system is an open-source green wave assistant designed specifically for cyclists and is installed 110 meters in front of a traffic light in Münster, Germany. The system indicates the remaining time of the current traffic light phase through an expiring bar, colored either green or red. This is intended to help cyclists adjust their speed in order to cross the traffic lights when green, and consequently optimize cycling flow. We conduct a natural field experiment in real traffic to analyze the impact of the Leezenflow system on cycling flow and safety, and find that it impacts statistically significantly on cycling flow. Due to the Leezenflow system, the number of cyclists that have to stop at the red lights decreases by 6.6 %. Accordingly, the share of cyclists that pass the green lights increases. The data also indicate positive effects on traffic safety. The results of the natural field experiment confirm and put into perspective the feedback of an accompanying online survey. The majority of surveyed users reports that the Leezenflow system does improve the cycling flow. The influence on traffic safety is predominantly seen as positive or neutral by the survey participants. The Leezenflow system can thus help city planners to promote cycling, thereby enabling more sustainable mobility.

Keywords: Bicycle traffic flow; traffic safety; open-source green wave assistant; countdown timer; natural field experiment; survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 R49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2023-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env, nep-exp, nep-spo, nep-tre and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.wiwi.uni-muenster.de/ivm/sites/ivm/fil ... e/workingpaper37.pdf First Version, 2023 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mut:wpaper:37

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Institute of Transport Economics, University of Muenster Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Birgit Rueschenschmidt ().