Evaluation of a bicycle lane as a sustainable means of transport in cities with an excessive presence of motorcycle taxis

An efficient transport system is essential for urban mobility because it has a direct impact on the quality of life of the inhabitants. However, public transportation systems are limited in economically less developed areas. It is here where more economical means of transport such as motorcycle taxi arises. This vehicle is not only responsible for 53% of vehicle accidents in the city of Ica-Peru, but its accelerated growth as a means of transport generates traffic congestion problems, increased travel time and delays in the system. Faced with this problem, the bicycle is proposed as a sustainable means of transport to reduce the travel time of different users. This article performs an operational evaluation of the travel time and average speed of different modes of transport and their behavior when including a bicycle lane. To achieve this analysis, data was collected in the study area using a drone. With the collected data, a microsimulation model was built in the PTV VISSIM 9.0 software. The results showed that, by implementing a bicycle lane with optimized traffic light cycles, a shorter bicycle travel time will be obtained by 20.3% compared to the motorcycle taxi user. In addition, the average speed of the bicycle increases by 30%.