Model bicategories and their homotopy bicategories

We give the definitions of model bicategory and $q$-homotopy, which are natural generalizations of the notions of model category and homotopy to the context of bicategories. For any model bicategory $\mathcal{C}$, denote by $\mathcal{C}_{fc}$ the full sub-bicategory of the fibrant-cofibrant objects. We prove that the 2-dimensional localization of $\mathcal{C}$ at the weak equivalences can be computed as a bicategory $\mathcal{H}o(\mathcal{C})$ whose objects and arrows are those of $\mathcal{C}_{fc}$ and whose 2-cells are classes of $q$-homotopies up to an equivalence relation. When considered for a model category, $q$-homotopies coincide with the homotopies as considered by Quillen. The pseudofunctor $\mathcal{C} \stackrel{q}{\longrightarrow} \mathcal{H}o(\mathcal{C})$ which yields the localization is constructed by using a notion of fibrant-cofibrant replacement in this context. We include an appendix with a general result of independent interest on a transfer of structure for lax functors, that we apply to obtain a pseudofunctor structure for the fibrant-cofibrant replacement.
Comment: Final version, to appear in Advances in Mathematics