New doctoral dissertation

VILNIUS TECH Library invites you to follow the published new dissertations. The dissertation „Modelling Urban Bicycle Traffic Flows with Consideration of Transport Infrastructure Safety“ („Miesto dviračių eismo srautų modeliavimas atsižvelgiant į susisiekimo infrastruktūros saugumą“) prepared at VILNIUS TECH by Miglė Zabielaitė-Skirmantė. The dissertation was prepared in 2021–2026. Scientific consultant – Prof. Dr Marija Burinskienė.

The dissertation was defended at the public meeting of the Dissertation Defence Council of the Scientific Field of Civil Engineering in the Aula Doctoralis Meeting Hall of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University at 10 a.m. on 22 April 2026.

The dissertation examines the impact of bicycle infrastructure solutions on subjective traffic safety and the possibilities of applying bicycle traffic flow forecasting methodologies on city streets. The main objects of the research are the impact of bicycle infrastructure solutions on the subjective sense of safety and the application of bicycle traffic flow forecasting methodologies on city streets. The dissertation aims to determine the accuracy of the aggregated behaviour model and sketch plan method in predicting bicycle traffic flows on city streets, using freely available data, and to determine the impact of different bicycle infrastructure solutions on predicted bicycle traffic flows in terms of subjective safety. The work addresses several main tasks: quantitatively assesses the impact of subjective safety on predicted bicycle traffic flows, and performs bicycle traffic flow forecasting using the aggregated behaviour model and the sketch plan method using freely available data. The dissertation consists of an introduction, three main chapters, general conclusions, lists of references and the author’s publications on the dissertation topic, and three appendices. The Introduction discusses the research problem and its relevance, defines the research object, outlines the dissertation’s aim and objectives, describes the research methodology, presents the scientific novelty and practical significance of the results, and introduces the defended statements. The section concludes with a list of the author’s publications and conference presentations related to the dissertation, as well as the structure of the work. The First Chapter reviews the principles of bicycle infrastructure planning, methods and databases for obtaining bicycle traffic flow data, analyses bicycle traffic flow forecasting methodologies, the data they employ and the accuracy. The Second Chapter describes the conducted theoretical studies, analyses the application of subjective safety in the Lithuanian context, provides its quantitative assessment, presents the results, and outlines the procedure of the experimental bicycle traffic flow forecasting study. The Third Chapter presents the results of experimental bicycle traffic flow studies conducted using aggregate behaviour and sketch planning methodologies, as well as their analyses and an evaluation of the accuracy of these methodologies. Seven scientific articles on the dissertation topic have been published: three in journals indexed in the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science database, one in peer-reviewed international conference proceedings, and three in other national and international conference materials. Four presentations on the dissertation topic were given at Lithuanian conferences, and three at conferences abroad.

Doctoral dissertation readers can search via VILNIUS TECH Virtual Library.