Citation

Oyesiku OO, Akinyemi OO, Giwa SO, Lawal NS, Adetifa BO. Case Stud. Transp. Policy 2020; 8(4): 1319-1328.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, World Conference on Transport Research Society, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.cstp.2020.09.003

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Bicycle mounted trailers are no longer a new technology as several designs are available for different applications. Despite this progress, certain factors affect the use and viability of these trailers in some rural communities. There is, therefore, a need to define working limits on each factor known to affect the performances of these trailers and economically evaluate the viability of these trailers. This study identifies the effect of these factors, thereby optimizes them and estimates the financial viability and/or sustainability. A field test, performance optimization, net present value (NPV) and benefit-cost ratio (BCR) of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) was carried out on two bicycle trailer designs namely wire mesh deign (WMD) and a fixed plate design (FPD) on two different roads, namely, earthen and bitumen roads, while carrying a load in the range of 0-100 kg over a distance of 50 m. The optimization report showed that more load was carried on bitumen road at a higher speed compared to the earthen road. Also, on each of the roads, the WMD trailer was faster and carried more load than the FPD trailer. The two trailers were found to be economically viable with NPV and BCR of $36,993.22 and 11.68 for WMD trailer and $28,846.93 and 9.36 for FPD trailer after 20 years. For optimal and economic performance, the loading capacity of WMD and FPD trailers should be limited to 100 kg and around 80 kg, respectively. This study shows that performance optimization can be adopted to mitigate the problems facing the use of bicycle trailers.

Language: en

Keywords

Cost-benefit analysis; Design-expert; Response surface methodology; Road transportation