The average trip length in Swiss cities is under 14km, with around 60% of trips below 6km. Despite the potential for healthier, more sustainable alternatives, nearly half of the total distance travelled is by car. Bicycles play a key role in recent initiatives (e.g. E-Bike City project from ETH Zurich) aimed at building sustainable, vibrant future cities. However, bicycles are still seen by transportation experts and users as a complementary mode to cars.
There is a limited understanding of how mass cycling impacts traffic efficiency and transport operations due to a lack of realistic models for scaled-up studies and a lack of observations. The project Model Suite for Mass Cycling as a Service Simulation (BikeZ) explores how mass cycling can transform traffic dynamics, efficiency, and urban mobility.
Over 18 months, BikeZ will:
- conduct drone experiments to gain in-depth insights into cyclists’ behaviours and decision-making processes,
- develop a comprehensive Model Suite with an API for integration in simulation software packages to enable simulation of mass bicycle traffic,
- carry out a case study in Zurich to quantify the impact of mass cycling on congestion, emissions, and energy consumption under reallocated infrastructure.
The first insights from drone experiments conducted at ETH Hönggerberg campus (late 2024) are promising, showing a well-shaped fundamental diagram for bicycles with a high capacity and critical density.
In June 2025, we organised a naturalistic bicycle experiment in the city of Zurich, aiming to observe the behaviour of cyclists in a real-world environment. We currently analyse the first preliminary data and we already plan ahead for the deployment of a third two-day experimental campaign. The first day, we will monitor the Velodemo event in Zurich with the participation of hundreds of cyclists, and the next day we will organise a scenario-based controlled experiment to gain insights on focused bicycle traffic dynamics.
Join our Experiment on 23 September at Baslerstrasse in Zürich
Do you like cycling? Stay tuned!
On the modeling side, we work on the extension and observation-based calibration of a lane-free bicycle microsimulation model that was developed by the SVT in 2024. You can find the corresponding publication here.
It’s time to make cycling the primary choice for short- and medium-distance travel, towards a more sustainable and active mobility.
Watch our video of the experiment here.
Dr. Michail A. Makridis is the Deputy Director of the Traffic Engineering and Control group at ETH Zürich, Switzerland. His research focuses on traffic flow, management, and control for Intelligent Transportation Systems involving Connected and Automated Vehicles. His work emphasizes data-driven, physics-informed modeling and AI to enhance sustainability, traffic efficiency, antifragile operations, and equitable transport networks. In 2022, he received the JRC Annual Award for Excellence in Research from the EC. He is an Associate Editor for the IEEE Open Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems and serves on various scientific committees. He is a founding member of Antifragility Science working group and member of the steering committee of RERITE working group.
![Dynamic allocation of urban road space based on the bi-modal (motorized vehicles and bicycles) daily traffic pattern [source- mattership.io]](https://www.nsl.ethz.ch/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Dynamic-allocation-of-urban-road-space-based-on-the-bi-modal-motorized-vehicles-and-bicycles-daily-traffic-pattern-source-mattership.io_-280x280.jpg)
