A Global Review of Current Instrumented Probe Bicycle (IPB) Technology and Research

Bicycling has been shown to provide many benefits, including: environmental, social, health, economic and transport. It produces minimum fossil fuel emissions, is affordable to almost 80% of the world’s population, is a source of exercise, reduces cost of travel and uses much less road space as compared to other modes of transport. However, the transport environment in most North American cities is still car-centric. Portland has one of the highest rates of bicycle commuters in North America (NA), around 6.3%, which can be considered very low when compared to many European cities, for example Copenhagen, where over 30% of commuters use bicycles. Various studies have revealed that the main challenges to wider acceptability of bicycle transport in NA are comfort and safety. Several indices have been developed to model perceived comfort and safety of bicycle riders. Researchers have also tried to quantify the effects of dedicated bicycle infrastructure, bicycle-vehicle interactions, and bicycle velocity, acceleration or angular velocity on perceived comfort and safety. The most recent technological development in this area is the Instrumented Probe Bicycle (IPB); used to monitor the bicycling environment. In this paper, previous research from around the world in this field is outlined. Next, through a survey of predominantly North American researchers, the current state IPB research in NA is summarized. Finally, a strategic IPB research plan for NA is proposed, with its ultimate aim to improve IPB technology and promote bicycling. First, further development of IPB software technology is suggested with the aim of automating steps between data collection and analysis. Second, further bicycle comfort and safety research utilizing IPBs is proposed in conjunction with improved bicycle education programs. Finally, independent IPB technological development can lead to diverse designs from which the best ideas can be drawn. It is not crucial for IPB designs to be standardized at this time. Once IPB technology is developed further, standardization can take place.