Eyes on the Road: Disentagling Cyclist Mental Workload at Intersections

In North America, cyclists often share infrastructure with motor vehicles and encounter frequent conflicts with them at intersections. While past research assumes cyclists' experiences mirror those of drivers, most studies focus on roadway segments rather than intersections. This study addresses that gap by, for the first time we are aware of, examining cyclist perceptions at intersections using head and gaze movement data. Leveraging naturalistic data conducted in Albuquerque New Mexico, and statistical techniques, including t-test and repeated measures ANOVA, our findings suggest that – similar to drivers - cyclists do experience greater mental workload when performing turning movements than when performing straight movements. However, we find that cyclists experience the greatest mental workload when performing right turns. From this, we suggest that transportation professionals further investigate the mental workload of cyclists while performing turning movements, but improvements should be made for cyclists for all turning movements.