How can a city judge whether a proposed bike lane will meet the needs of all transportation users? Start with a temporary one and evaluate it before building the real thing. Rutgers University researchers worked with Asbury Park, New Jersey, to do just that using a combination of high-tech and low-tech strategies…

They recorded the bike and e-scooter user experience before and after the bike lane installation with eye-tracking glasses and galvanic skin response sensors that record stress levels. The footage and lidar scans allowed them to simulate the on-site micromobility rider experience via a virtual reality headset in a campus VR lab. Traffic camera footage provided further information on interactions among bikes, scooters, cars, buses, and pedestrians.

Defining the bike lane — in particular, the use of traffic cones to create tighter turn radiuses at intersections — succeeded in encouraging slower speeds and safer driving, the researchers reported,,,