Open Collections

Abstract

The trend of increasingly multi-modal urban transportation has accelerated with the advent of new types of personal mobility devices (PMD, also known as micromobility) such as electric-assist bicycles, scooters, skateboards, and unicycles. There is a need to understand the impacts of PMDs on travellers and existing transportation facilities. However, little is known about usage of emerging PMDs, their operational characteristics, and public perceptions towards them. Lack of robust data hinders facility design, regulation, and policy for their safe and comfortable integration into our transportation systems. This dissertation develops a comprehensive understanding of the diversity, usage, and operational characteristics of PMDs in off-street cycling facilities and multi-use paths, and assesses how these factors, along with contextual variables, influence path users’ perceptions of comfort. Additionally, it examines the evolution of PMD usage and speeds over a four-year period (2019–2023) to evaluate their changing role and impact on comfort. I collected classified volume and speed data using pneumatic tubes synchronized with video cameras at 12 locations across metropolitan Vancouver. At the same sites I conducted a web survey to capture path users' perceptions. I combined these datasets with a second round of classified count and speed data to examine trends in PMD usage, speeds, and user perceptions over time. I classified 27 types of PMDs, revealing a wide array of devices in use. Conventional bicycles accounted for 91% of mode share in 2019-2020; however, their share had decreased to 75% in 2023. Motorized devices became more prevalent over the same period, as the mode share of electric bicycles quadrupled, and stand-up electric scooters saw a ten-fold increase. Average speeds in cycling facilities rose from 19 to 21 km/hr with this increased motorization. Despite concerns over new devices, path users are predominantly comfortable sharing paths with most PMDs, except for high-speed devices such as sit-down electric scooters and self-balancing unicycles. Implications of these findings include recommendations to modernize PMD regulations and facility design guidelines, restrict high-speed/low-comfort device types, reduce thresholds for separating pedestrians on multi-use paths, test speed mitigation strategies, and continue monitoring the evolving impacts of PMDs on speed and comfort.