We have successfully designed and implemented a multi-player, multi-modal virtual reality (VR) co-simulator that integrates both pedestrians and cyclists within the same VR environment. This co-simulator is designed to support multi-player, multi-modal VR experiments aimed at comprehensive data collection in transportation research. It features advanced functionalities including body tracking for pedestrians and cyclists, high-quality digital human representations, and comprehensive data collection technologies such as eye gazing data. A VR experiment was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the VR co-simulator and investigate the interactions between vulnerable road users (VRUs) and automated vehicles (AVs) in shared spaces. The assessment demonstrated the co-simulator's capabilities and feasibility in terms of simulator sickness, presence, realism, and usability. The experiment also confirmed the impact of VRU combinations and initial relative positions on the interactions between VRUs and AVs in shared space.

This research explores how shared bicycles can enhance the modal shift from cars to public transport for commuter trips in suburban areas, focusing on South Holland. The study combines a literature review with a survey, comprising revealed and stated preference components, to assess travel behaviour and quantify the effects of shared bicycle attributes. A multinomial logit model is applied to estimate behavioural responses, with 105 respondents commuting to Drechtsteden and Leiden as case studies.

Results underline the critical role of competitive public transport travel times in fostering shared bicycle adoption. In areas where public transport significantly lags behind cars in travel time, the potential for shared bicycles is diminished. Shared bicycles are most effective for last-mile distances between 500 and 3,000 metres, but availability issues and reliance on private bicycles limit their adoption. Cost measures, including employer subsidies and reduced shared bicycle fees, significantly encourage uptake, while car parking charges predominantly shift commuters to public transport. A combination of free shared bicycles and paid parking achieves a potential modal shift of 10 percentage points, though inclusivity remains essential.

The stated preference model reveals that shared bicycle costs are perceived as three times more negative than travel time, particularly among younger and low-income travellers. Women and lower-educated individuals are more sensitive to public transport travel times, while frequent car users show less aversion to longer car journeys. Furthermore, hybrid systems such as Donkey Republic meet the needs of frequent commuters, while e-bikes provide limited added value in suburban areas due to car dominance over longer distances.

This study concludes that optimising public transport competitiveness, improving shared bicycle availability, and introducing cost incentives are vital for achieving a sustainable modal shift. Recommendations include integrating shared bicycles into public transport cards, reallocating bicycle parking, and enhancing hub locations to strengthen the synergy between shared bicycles and public transport.

Amsterdam's extensive network of bridges and quay walls is facing a critical maintenance backlog due to structural underfunded infrastructure maintenance. The many upcoming bridge maintenance projects to ensure safety are expected to cause significant more hindrance to road users. However, complex road networks with high traffic density in urban areas like Amsterdam make it difficult to foresee how the effects of different maintenance projects interact and how the projects can be planned efficiently to reduce hindrance.
This study aims to optimise the planning of a given set of bridge maintenance projects to reduce hindrance to road users, combining a genetic algorithm with traffic simulations using a new estimation method to improve the assessment of simultaneous closures. The genetic algorithm selects the optimal starting time and execution duration for each bridge while minimising maintenance cost and additional travel times for the modalities car, freight and bicycle. Using the fast static traffic simulation of the Urban Strategy Tool of TNO, a new estimation method for evaluating simultaneous closures is proposed, accounting for interdependencies between bridges. Results of a case study on four urban bridges in Amsterdam show that the new method provides more accurate estimates of additional travel time compared to previous methods and generates better solutions. Moreover, the fast proposed optimisation framework makes it possible to evaluate multiple scenarios in reasonable time to assist in decision making of maintenance planning.

This studydives into factors influencing the shared e-moped usage in first- and last mile. Other studies show that the service area size, vehicle availability the shape of city and the temperature affect the shared e-moped usage. This study confirms the service catchment, temperature and vehicle availability factors. It adds to this that also factors such as the share of young people, bus frequency, shared bike availability, walking distance, visibility and points of interest have an influence. This study also provides a quantification to show which factor has the biggest influence. According to the model results, the vehicle availability at a station is the most important factor. Next to the factors, this study also shows what the usage patterns of shared e-mopeds in first- and last mile transportation are. This study, therefore, helps in understanding the usage of shared e-mopeds as a first- and last mile mode.

This research provides insight into the most effective approach for implementing shared micromobility services in towns and suburban communities, considering the preferences and requirements of key stakeholders, such as users, non-users, shared micromobility providers, public transport operators and municipalities or other government agencies. The scope of the study is limited to sharing of bicycles, e-bikes and mopeds. The results will allow all municipalities within the same province, or even within the entire country, to ensure a unified application with a solid business plan and a greater chance of success.

An example of a promising service involves the application of shared bicycles with hubs at all key locations in the service area and various hubs in the neighbourhood (back-to-many). Anticipating on the requests of residents and businesses. The service is connected to all municipalities in the area, with an emphasis on connecting at least one large town or city. If this collaboration is established, shared e-bikes are introduced, primarily focused on distances exceeding 3 kilometres. Finally, the system can be complemented with shared mopeds, limiting their use to a few hubs per municipality. This allows for effective control of usage and minimizes disturbances. Limiting the number of locations makes it possible to create physical parking facilities for mopeds, which contributes to mitigating inconvenience. However, every situation is unique, this thesis provides guidance on the approach to be considered for different scenarios.

When traffic demand is high and the intersection lacks throughput, oversaturated traffic phenomena occur, such as the oversaturation of a turning bay or intersection link. When such unsafe situations emerge, control strategies can be applied to handle or avoid these spillback effects. In this paper, a spillback component is designed that detects and controls spillback in a real-time controlled traffic system (RTCS) that optimizes multiple vehicle types in its optimization, with a high vehicle priority for the light-rail vehicle (LRV). A spillback control strategy was developed that assigns additional priority to the congested link when spillback is detected. For assessment, a simulation study is conducted to gain insight into the effects of applying spillback control strategies on the traffic and network performance at an isolated intersection and in a corridor. The results showed that the intersection performance decreased when a spillback control strategy was applied in the optimization, but the network performance increased during the peak period. Furthermore, a spillback penalty factor effectively decreases spillback durations while it works well in combination with higher prioritized public transit. A too-high priority negatively impacts the intersection and network performance. However, in some cases, a (high) spillback priority is necessary to provide enough priority so that a growing unsafe situation is avoided. Therefore, it is crucial to determine the intended use and applicability when providing spillback priority. The spillback priority is one of the few priorities that can be configured in the utilized RTCS; it is recommended to research the impacts when varying priorities are used.

In the Netherlands, the bicycle is a popular means of transport. One of the benefits of cycling is improved health due to more physical activity. However, cycling also causes a health burden due to the many cycling accidents in the Netherlands. The share of single bicycle accidents, where no collision with another road user is involved, has increased over the past years. In 2000 only 10% of all bicycle accidents were single bicycle accidents, while in 2018 this increased to 35%. One of the potential causes for single bicycle accidents is narrow bicycle paths. This research focussed on the influence of the bicycle path width of narrow bidirectional bicycle paths on steering behaviour, which can support a discussion on the required minimum width for bicycle paths in the guidelines. A controlled experiment is conducted to collect data of steering behaviour variables on different bicycle path widths while controlling other influencing factors. The results of the experiment show that cyclists cycle significantly closer to the path edge on narrower bicycle paths (55.6 centimeter on a 2-meter wide path and 37 centimeter on a 1-meter wide path), while there are no differences in average steering angle. An oncoming cyclist, which is in the experiment represented by a parked bicycle, forces cyclists to cycle even closer to the path edge, which makes the minimum distance to the path edge smaller. The minimum distance to the path edge becomes 15.1 centimeter on a 1.5-meter wide path. This smaller distance to the path edge increases the risk of riding off the path, which makes the narrower paths less safe. A questionnaire was used to examine the perception of the different path widths. The perceived safety of cyclists decreased on narrower bicycle paths. A 2-meter wide bidirectional bicycle path is considered safe to pass others by all participants, but on a 1.5-meter wide path this is only considered safe by half of the participants. The main research question was “What is the influence of the width of bidirectional bicycle paths on cyclists’ steering behaviour?”. It can be concluded that lateral position is related to the width of bidirectional bicycle paths, while steering angle rotation is not related to the width of bicycle paths. The results of the experiment are transferable to real-life traffic conditions, but do not include the variety in infrastructural conditions, cyclist ages and bicycle types. These varieties in real-life traffic conditions might increase the required bicycle path width.

Integration of the demand responsive transport system (DRT) with the public transport system can provide an opportunity for the public transport authorities to guarantee accessibility in rural areas and address the first/last mile problem in rural areas. The literature on the institutional arrangement and organising DRT as a part of the public transport system, however, is limited. This research aims to fill this research gap. A cross-case analysis is performed on 4 cases and key learnings from the cases are presented. These cases are examples of systems where DRT operates as a part of the public transport system. From the cross-case analysis, this research proposes an organisational structure that allows the dissolution of the boundaries between the two transport systems. First, a bundling of different types of DRT systems into a single system is proposed. Next, a mobility agency that brings the stakeholders from municipalities and the province into a single body is proposed. The mobility agency will be responsible for developing, planning, contracting, and monitoring the bundled DRT and the public transport systems. Since all these responsibilities will be concentrated in a single body, this structure can lead to alignment between the policies, budgets, and powers of the stakeholders. When an organisational structure is established this way, it is expected that an alignment between the operations of the two systems will follow. However, establishing such a structure is challenging. The challenges are finding the right cooperation model that can be followed by the stakeholders and finding the optimal scale for the structure to work.

The impact of the traffic measure package (TMP) configuration on performance outputs of a behavioral policy measure (BPM) is in practice predominately estimated, but not yet substantiated. This was also the case for TMPs implemented in ‘Beter Benutten Vervolg’ (BBV), which was a program that executed hundreds of policy measures to get car users to avoid peak. That is why the research objective of this study is to gain insight into the impact of TMP configuration on the performance outputs of BPMs. The research methods for this study included a literature study, a practical knowledge study, a travel behavior questionnaire analysis and a data analysis of BPM data from BBV. The insights gained from the literature study and the practical knowledge study led to the formation hypotheses on a TMP configuration that could positively impact the performance outputs from a BMP within that package. These hypotheses were then tested using both the travel behavior questionnaire data and BPM data from BBV. Performing the two data analyses on the hypotheses, it is likely that when a BPM interacts with an IPM that incentivizes a switch to the same alternative mode, that BPM would have a higher degree of participation than an independently implemented BPM. It is also possible that a BPM in such a TMP configuration has a higher activity than an average BPM. Due to both performance outputs being positively impacted by the TMP configuration, it is assumed that the effectiveness from such a BPM would also be positively impacted by such a configuration. For the second hypothesis it is likely that when a BPM interacts with another BPM that incentivizes the switch to a different alternative mode, that BPM would have a lower degree of participation than an independently implemented BPM. It is however probable that a BPM in such a TMP configuration has a higher activity than an average BPM. Due to the degree of participation being negatively impacted and the activity being positively impacted by the TMP configuration it is not yet clear if the effectiveness of a BPM would be positively or negatively impacted by such a configuration. The results of this study led to two main policy implications. First, accompany a BPM with an infrastructural improvement that incentivizes the switch to the same mode.
Car users would be more likely to participate in such a BPM and when they participate there is an indication that the activity in avoiding peak is also higher. Both of these performance outputs being positively impacted would also lead to a higher effectiveness of this BPM. Second, offering multiple options for the car users to avoid peak. Less car users would probably participate in such a BPM. The car users that do participate probably have a higher activity in avoiding peak. It is still unclear if how the effectiveness of such a BPM is impacted.

With the arrival of Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) concepts for traffic control systems emerge that let CAVs weave over the crossing area of an intersection. However, in the current literature, the safety of these vehicles is generally an assumption rather than a certainty. Moreover, the time period where CAVs and Human-Driven Vehicles (HDVs) share the road (i.e. hybrid traffic period) is often not considered by the design of these concepts.
This paper describes technical and non-technical factors that influence the actual and perceived safety of passengers of HDVs and CAVs during the vehicle interactions that occur in the hybrid traffic period. The impact of the indicated factors on the actual or perceived safety of a vehicle is analyzed and described in terms of required safety margins around a vehicle. The size of the safety margins described depend on the positioning inaccuracy of the vehicle, its trajectory tracking inaccuracy, a time synchronisation inaccuracy, and on the preferred time headway, preferred driver space, and accepted time gap of the car occupants. Due to a lack of available data that could be used to compare the expected size of the safety margins around the vehicle with, this research presents a methodology to generate own data that could be used for this comparison. A virtual reality experiment was executed among 82 participants, which resulted in a 93\% acceptance rate at a time gap of 1.5 seconds between one vehicle leaving and another vehicle entering their conflict area. It appeared that neither the crossing direction (left, right) nor the vehicle composition (HDV, CAV) of a vehicle interaction scenario influenced the perceived safety margins in front of the vehicle. The experiment found lower perceived safety margins in front of the vehicle than was expected according to the literature study. This may be the result of the sample not completely being comparable to the total drivers population. 2.0 seconds was accepted by 99\% of the participants. The question arises what acceptance rate is desired to determine the minimum time gap that can be used as a perceived safety margin by future traffic control systems. The accepted time gap is expected to decrease as soon as more drivers get experienced with CAVs.

This research aims at analyzing route choice behavior of E-bikers, in terms of which factors play a role and to what extent. The research is performed based on E-bikers route data in Ghent. Two interesting developments are aimed to include as well, in terms of multi-attribute cost functions as input for route generation and including land use attributes to cyclist’s route choice models.

Understanding pedestrian traffic is essential to design for safe and reliable pedestrian infrastructures, facilities and operations. For the assessment and design of pedestrian transfer areas at stations capacity standards for uni- and bidirectional flows are applied. It has been observed that, at railway stations, also other configurations of flows occur, such as intersecting flows at different angles (e.g. intersections between transfer areas and stairs/escalators or shops). In contrast to uni- and bidirectional flows, for which many researches have quantitatively studied the pedestrian flow characteristics, only little research has been done to intersecting flows. The purpose of this research is to gain insight into how the flow capacity of a pedestrian intersection at a railway station is influenced by several factors and to explore methods that can estimate the flow capacity of a pedestrian intersection. A theoretical framework has been constructed that shows the hypothesized causal relations between the research topic - intersection flow capacity - and several variables that describe the context of this study. Furthermore, three capacity estimation methods were proposed to estimate the flow capacity of a pedestrian intersection. According to the field study, the second and third method both seem suitable for capacity estimations, even though the intersection flow capacity (according to the traffic flow principles) could not be estimated in this study. Several recommendations have been made for future research, including points of improvement regarding the the studied methods, directions for research focus and the usability of the findings in this study.

In order for public transportation to remain an attractive travel option, its reliability must be improved. To enable this, extensive knowledge on the passenger delay phenomenon is necessary. This study explores the possibility of using empirical data of passenger delay to determine the relationships between stations through a Bayesian Network approach. This approach is able to uncover any dependencies, regardless of known or unknown causes. The results from the Bayesian Network can be used to calculate a set of newly defined informativity indicators. These indicators give information on a station’s capacity of providing information on the delay state of the rest of the network. Among the possible applications of these indicators are: providing accurate information to passengers and the operator on delays, and aiding in determining the most effective areas for delay mitigation measures. To increase the usefulness of these indicators, they are compared to centrality indicators, so that even for networks with little available data, the informativity indicators can still be approximated. It was found that the centrality and informativity indicators correlate to some extent, meaning the informativity indicators could be very meaningful and relevant in further gaining knowledge on and improving public transport reliability.

In an environment in which Public Transport plays an ever growing role in urban areas and passenger experience. In-depth knowledge on customer satisfaction is key in improving passenger experience. Crowding has shown to be an important aspect of route and mode choice, but its impact on customer satisfaction has not yet been quantitatively explored. This paper investigates this impact. Using a Structural Equation Model based on customer satisfaction survey data and corresponding occupancy and punctuality numbers a significant effect of occupancy levels on perceived crowding was found. In-vehicle crowding, both subjective and objective, seems to impact overall customer satisfaction indirect, with comfort being the main mediating variable. Model results were converted into a calculation tool which can be used to assess the impact of changes in passenger numbers, passenger distribution and frequencies on customer satisfaction. Further research can verify the linearity of the relation between in-vehicle crowding and customer satisfaction and deepen knowledge of external factors such as weather and disruptions have on experienced crowding.

To evaluate traffic signal controllers, and vehicle-actuated traffic signal controllers in particular, in terms of how they are performing with respect to the road authority’s policies on traffic flow and accessibility, traffic safety, and environmental factors, several methods are developed in practice. However, in scientific literature, little attention is paid to this type of traffic signal controller evaluations. Indeed, it is found that a functional, and integral evaluation and diagnosis method for traffic signal controllers, based on a multi-variable assessment, is currently lacking. This thesis tries to fill this gap, by developing, and presenting an integral method, which detects inefficiencies in terms of traffic performance functioning, scores the vehicle-actuated traffic signal controller, diagnoses the cause of the detected inefficiency, and propose countermeasures to improve the traffic performance functioning of the vehicle-actuated traffic signal controller, based on a multi-variable assessment. This resulted in a five-step procedure, in which consecutively (1) the multi-variable performance indicators are selected, (2) the computational models are calibrated, (3) inefficiencies are detected, (4) the problems are diagnosed that caused the inefficient performance, and (5) optimises the traffic signal controller by implementing the countermeasures that aim at mitigating the diagnosed problems. The procedure includes a feedback loop to check whether the proposed countermeasures were effective. The testing of the method in a case study, using simulation data, showed that the method is indeed able to successfully detect inefficiencies, and diagnose the corresponding problems. Although the presented method is not perfect yet, its potential is clear. Therefore, it is recommended to develop the method further in the future, and include the use of data from practice as a way to make the method more widely applicable.

This research aimed to create knowledge and set guidelines for the (re)development of railway station areas regarding the required land use for access/egress facilities as a result of access/egress transportation developments. First, a literature review was conducted to gather knowledge for the foundation of this research. With the information, a scenario matrix was constructed to distinguish four future development paths for access/egress transport. Subsequently, a footprint indicator was developed to determine the required land use for access/egress facilities. Data on the expected modal split in each of the four scenarios was gathered through a mode choice experiment. These values were subsequently used in combination with the footprint indicator for the spatial assessment of railway station areas.

At mass events, pedestrians can experience the level of crowdedness as unsafe, unpleasant and stressful. To gain a better understanding of perceived crowdedness, the effects of personal, trip and event characteristics at an event are researched. Data collection was performed by a simultaneous survey and monitoring study at the TT Festival in Assen and at the Red light district in Amsterdam. A SEM model shows that perceived crowdedness is influenced by mainly by the density, quantified using Wi-Fi sensor data. Besides that, trip purpose and familiarity with the event influence perceived crowdedness as well. Furthermore, this research shows that perception of safety, comfort, atmosphere and attractiveness of the environment are also related to the perception of crowdedness.

Previous studies on Hyperloop network design, do not show any application of detailed network design process. The current study focuses on network design of Hyperloop considering the case of Switzerland. The study estimates the costs from the literature and estimates demand of network from the Swiss National Passenger Transport Model. These estimates along with a few fixed stations are considered as inputs for the network design process. The overall sequential network design process is performed in three phases i.e. (i) Network Generation (ii) Route Design & Frequency Setting (iii) Assignment. Output generated from each of the phases has been used as an input for the subsequent phase. The network generation phase develops the structure of the network, while the route design phase defines the lines and respective frequencies. The network design is also evaluated with the help of Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) in accordance with Swiss CBA norms. The findings show that the overall process develops positive results with respect benefit to cost ratio. The sensitivity analysis is also performed with all the phases of network design including cost-benefit analysis. The results show a linear relation of benefit to cost ratio with each cost, value of time and discount rate.

This thesis covers the research of a new methodology that is able to create crowd management measures for hubs that are under (re)construction where business is performed as usual. The methodology contains the steps required to perform a case analysis and use the information gathered to create and deliver practicle, feasible and efficient crowd management measures. This report covers the results of: a literature study, feedback by unstructured interviews, defined methodology based on the principles of product design, case study results of the methodology application performed at Rotterdam The Hague Airport and, assessment of the created methodology and delivered crowd management measures.

This research investigates the question how the choice of scenarios and metrics influences the calibration of pedestrian simulation models. By calibrating a pedestrian model using different combinations of scenarios and metrics and comparing the results it was concluded that it matters what scenarios and metrics are included during the calibration. The implication of this is that one should calibrate a pedestrian model based on its intended usage and that this should be leading in the choice of which scenarios and metrics to use.