  Electric bikes (e-bikes), including lightweight e-bikes with pedals and
e-bikes in scooter form, are gaining popularity around the world because of
their convenience and affordability. At the same time, e-bike-related accidents
are also on the rise and many policymakers and practitioners are debating the
feasibility of building e-bike lanes in their communities. By collecting
e-bikes and bikes data in Shanghai City, the study first recalibrates the
capacity of the conventional bike lane based on the traffic movement
characteristics of the mixed bikes flow. Then, the study evaluates the traffic
safety performance of the mixed bike flow in the conventional bike lane by the
observed passing events. Finally, this study proposes a comprehensive model for
evaluating the feasibility of building an e-bike lane by integrating the
Analytic Hierarchy Process and fuzzy mathematics by considering the three
objectives: capacity, safety, and budget constraint. The proposed model, one of
the first of its kind, can be used to (i) evaluate the existing road capacity
and safety performance improvement of a mixed bike flow with e-bikes and
human-powered bikes by analyzing the mixed bike flow arrival rate and passing
maneuvers, and (ii) quantify the changes to the road capacity and safety
performance if a new e-bike lane is constructed. Numerical experiments are
performed to calibrate the proposed model and evaluate its performance using
non-motorized vehicles' trajectories in Shanghai, China. The numerical
experiment results suggest that the proposed model can be used by policymakers
and practitioners to evaluate the feasibility of building e-bike lanes.
