Studying cyclists’ behavior in a non-naturalistic experiment utilizing cycling simulator with immersive virtual reality

Abstract

This study investigates the combination immersive virtual reality (VR) and an instrumented cycling simulator for in-depth behavioral studies of cyclists. To this end, a cycling simulator was developed, virtual environments resembling Singapore were created, combined with the output of a traffic microsimulation. This set-up was created with the specific objective of evaluating the effects environment properties and road infrastructure designs on cyclists’ perceived safety. Forty participants, mainly university students, were recruited for the experiment. Results showed that the average speed of the participants changes between scenes with different bicycle facilities, with the highest value for the segregated bicycle path. The braking and head movement activities also changed within each scene, where they significantly occurred more before arriving at the intersections. Questionnaire results revealed adding a painted bicycle path to a sidewalk increases the level of perceived safety. Moreover, participants felt safest for cycling on the segregated bicycle path, in line with findings from previous research. This study provides evidence that cyclists’ behavior and perceptions in VR is very similar to reality and that VR, combined with a cycling simulator, is suitable to communicate (future) cycling facilities.