A review of current online bicycle routing portals and their potential role in promoting safer bicycling

Martin Loidl | martin.loidl@sbg.ac.atRobin Wendel | robin.wendel@sbg.ac.at

Bernhard Zagel | bernhard.zagel@sbg.ac.at

International Cycling Safety CongressBologna, Nov. 3rd- 4th 2016

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safety = f (infrastructure + x)

Photos: M. Loidl (Salzburg)

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Gold standard: separated cycling facilities e.g. Pucher & Buehler 2008, Teschke et al. 2012

But: we don‘t ride in an ideal world

Safety

Photo: ECF (Flickr, CC)

Options?

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Safety

Provide adequate and safe infrastructure Equip and train bicyclists Provide information about safe routes

Safety concerns „Ideal world“Information

Keep people from riding

Infrastructure Route choice

Effect?

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Debate on role of information in mode choice Behaviour change through information? » e.g. Innocenti et al. (2013):

“first choice bias” Little research on information and route choice among bicyclists Bicycle routing ≠ car routing

Current situation

Route choice criteria

Age

Gender

Trip purpose

Experience

Equipment

Physical condition

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Route choice criteriaHochmair (2005)

Broach et al. (2012)Krenn et al. (2014)

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± consensus on relevant routing criteria Hochmair (2005) applies them to routing information » classes:

Route choice criteria

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Route optimization

Model-based Crash data (prevent roads with more occurrences) User feedback

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Pre-route planning apps and mobile navigation devices Crowd-sourced data

Current situation

Hypothesis:Safety is hardly ever addressed explicitly in information/ routing/ navigation applications.

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30 pre-trip route planning web applications Freely available, no registration, desktop version

Evaluation

Criteria defining “safety” according to Hochmair (2005) Routing criteria

Safe Area Lighted at Night Avoid Busy Intersections Bike Lane Good Street Condition Avoid Public Transport No Wrong-Enter of One-Ways Avoid Roundabouts

Distance Time Gradient Pavement Road Category Safety (+ definition, if available) Scenery (+ definition, if available) Comfort (+ definition, if available) Other

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Data

Evaluation data are available:https://gicycle.wordpress.com

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Bicycle routing is not a niche functionality! Rich variety of content, functionality, usability

Major differences between bicycle routing portal and routing portal with bicycle routing functionality

Results

https://www.google.com/maps http://efa.vvs.de/bike

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Most often verbally labeled routing criteria Hardly ever with explanation and/or documentation

ResultsBa

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für R

adler

BBBi

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Cycle

Inste

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cle Tr

avel

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Stre

ets

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and

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:fiet

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MVV

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enpl

aner

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Open

Rout

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vice

Plan

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karte

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urg

Radr

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esse

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Radr

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e City

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SF B

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lanne

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0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Num

ber o

f Rou

ting

Crite

ria

Median = 3

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„Safety“ as routing criterion

Results

Hochmair (2005)

Routing criteria

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No correlation between routing criteria, data source and geographical coverage

Results

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„Safety“ as relevant topic widely ignored Thus, effect of information provision for route choice can not be

assessed Implicit consideration of safety aspects

Bicycle infrastructure „Comfortable“ routes

Complexity of route choice not appropriately reflected One-fits-it-all solutions

Data and technology are not the limiting factors Open data, OGD, crowdsourcing initiatives

Discussion

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Conclusions

Winters et al. (2011)

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Safety is critical for mode choice + route choice Route choice is complex and individual

Data and technology allow for adaption, personalization, real-time, … Objective and subjective safety threats

Models, analyses + feedback, crowdsourced data Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have the capabilities

to integrated various perspectives and fuel user-tailored information portals

Conclusions

@gicycle_

gicycle.wordpress.com

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BROACH, J., DILL, J. & GLIEBE, J. 2012. Where do cyclists ride? A route choice model developed with revealed preference GPS data. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 46, 1730–1740.HOCHMAIR, H. 2005. Towards a classification of route selection criteria for route planning tools. In: FISHER, P. (ed.) Developments in Spatial Data Handling. Springer.INNOCENTI, A., LATTARULO, P. & PAZIENZA, M. G. 2013. Car stickiness: Heuristics and biases in travel choice. Transport Policy, 25, 158-168.KRENN, P. J., OJA, P. & TITZE, S. 2014. Route choices of transport bicyclists: a comparison of actually used and shortest routes. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 11, 1-7.WINTERS, M., DAVIDSON, G., KAO, D. & TESCHKE, K. 2011. Motivators and deterrents of bicycling: comparing influences on decisions to ride. Transportation, 38, 153-168.

References