Bicycle capacity of borrowed-priority merge at unsignalized intersections in China

To investigate bicyclists’ behavior at unsignalized intersections with mixed traffic flow, a bicycle capacity model of borrowed-priority merge was developed by the addition-conflict-flow procedure. Based on the actual traffic situation, the concept of borrowed priority, in which the major-road bicycles borrow the priority of major-road cars to enter the intersections when consecutive headway for major-steam cars is lower than the critical gap for minor-road cars, was addressed. Bicycle capacity at a typical unsignalized intersection is derived by the addition-conflict-flow procedure. The proposes model was validated by the empirical investigation. Numerical results show that bicycle capacity at an intersection is the function of major-road and minor-road car streams. Bicycle capacity increases with increasing major-road cars but decreases with increasing minor-road cars.