Abstract
Cycling is a sustainable but vulnerable mode of transportation. Intersections’ bicycle-vehicle crashes are particularly dangerous. This paper explores the discordance between empirical evidence and cyclists’ perceptions of the various risk factors of cycling. Ridge regression was adopted to identify risk factors from bicycle-vehicle conflict data. A questionnaire was distributed to assess cyclists’ perceptions of safety and danger over the same candidate risk factors. There was indeed discordance between the data and the questionnaire results. Cyclists appear to misestimate risk in certain factors such as bus stops and subway stations. Understanding these misestimations can provide a foundation for safety improvements and for promoting cycling as a sustainable mode of transportation.
Highlights
Cycling is a sustainable mode of transportation that reduces traffic congestion and carbon emissions [1,2]
This study was conducted to explore the differences in risk factors between statistical bicycle-vehicle conflict data and cyclists’ perceptions of risk
Our results suggest that cyclists may misestimate the risk of certain factors
Summary
Cycling is a sustainable mode of transportation that reduces traffic congestion and carbon emissions [1,2]. A major deterrent to cycling is the risk of collision with vehicles [3,4]. Cyclists experience higher rates of injury and death than motor vehicle drivers [5,6]. In Canada, cycling accidents result in 2.2% and 4.6% of all road fatalities and injuries, respectively, despite the low proportion of cyclists on the road [7]. Collisions between bicycles and motor vehicles comprise the majority of reported fatalities and serious injuries among other modes of transportation [8]. Improving cycling safety in intersections has become one of the key issues in promoting sustainable transportation
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