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Published on: February 1, 2020
Traffic-Weighted Detour Ratio Identifies Inefficient Cycling Routes
Xinze Qiu1,2, Tianli Gao3, Jingru Yu1
1Hangzhou International Innovation Institute, Beihang University, Hangzhou 311115, China.
Entropy (Basel, Switzerland)
|June 26, 2026
Summary
Dockless bike-sharing offers sustainable urban transport. A new cycling-traffic-weighted detour ratio better identifies inefficient routes than the standard detour ratio, aiding urban planning.
Area of Science:
- Urban planning and transportation science.
- Sustainable mobility and smart city development.
Background:
- Urban congestion stems from complex travel demands, road networks, and multi-modal transport.
- Bike-sharing systems, especially dockless models, are vital for sustainable transport, reducing emissions and congestion.
- Existing metrics like the detour ratio inadequately capture route-level congestion.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effectiveness of the detour ratio in reflecting urban congestion.
- To investigate the relationship between cycling flow, motor vehicle traffic, and road network structure.
- To propose an improved metric for identifying inefficient cycling routes.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing large-scale dockless bike-sharing and taxi trajectory data from Beijing.
- Quantitatively analyzing the interplay between cycling patterns, vehicular traffic, and urban road topology.
- Developing and validating a novel cycling-traffic-weighted detour ratio.
Main Results:
- The standard detour ratio is insufficient for assessing route-level congestion.
- Significant correlations exist between cycling flow, motor vehicle traffic, and road network characteristics.
- The proposed cycling-traffic-weighted detour ratio effectively identifies potentially inefficient cycling routes.
Conclusions:
- Rethinking congestion metrics is crucial for effective urban transport management.
- Dockless bike-sharing data, combined with traffic data, offers valuable insights for urban planning.
- The cycling-traffic-weighted detour ratio provides a tool for targeted infrastructure optimization and evidence-based planning.
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