How does a cyclist avoid obstacles?

The purpose of this research is to examine the ways bicycles swerve off sidewalks onto roads under various conditions. Seven students, five males and two females participated in an experiment on a road with a 100-cm wide sidewalk. Footage of each participant on a bicycle evading obstacles such as a utility pole and pedestrian were taken with a video camera, while a front-wheel view of the path taken by the bicycle was recorded simultaneously with a digital camera. Twelve experimental conditions were used for each participant, consisting of all the combinations of (1) three obstacle types, (2) the side (left or right) to which the bicycle went to avoid the obstacle, and (3) two weather conditions. Based on the two recorded scenes, the path was then analyzed from the viewpoint of how the bicycle swerved to avoid hitting the obstacle. We found that the conditions of riding a bicycle with an umbrella caused a larger swerve to avoid the obstacle than those conditions when the rider did not have an umbrella. In particular, the condition in which the obstacle was a pedestrian who also had an umbrella caused the largest swerve. Furthermore, the distance required to become aligned with the sidewalk when the obstacle was a pedestrian walking toward the cyclist was longer than that for other obstacles. The swerve width data showed interesting results, including a tendency for swerve width to be wider when the obstacle was a utility pole compared with other obstacles.