Novel Approaches to Model Travel Behavior and Sustainability Impacts of E-Bike Use

John MacArthur, Portland State University

Co-investigator:

  • Christopher Cherry, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Summary:

Electric bikes (e-bikes) are a new mode of transportation that could substantially improve efficiency in the transportation system if adopted as substitutes for cars.  Researchers at University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Portland State University, and Bosch E-Bike Systems have received funding from the National Science Foundation to measure real-world travel behavior and assess the sustainability impacts of those choices. We are developing a platform that is easily deployable, non-invasive, and leverages computing resources enabled by e-bike technology and smartphone sensor capability.

Current practices of tracking e-bike data rely on memory recall and self-reporting from the user. Our approach will instead leverage smartphones to conduct ad-hoc travel surveys to supplement the passive data collection and, using machine learning algorithms, create the largest and richest dataset to support the growth of e-bike use as a transportation option.

Project Details

Project Type:
Research
Project Status:
Completed
End Date:
August 31,2020
UTC Grant Cycle:
non-UTC project