RADBEST – Cycling guidance in confined road conditions
A transnational consortium led by Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft is investigating in objective safety and the subjective perception of safety and is developing evidence-based recommendations for the future planning of cycling infrastructure at bottlenecks.
The rapid expansion of cycle path networks in the DACH region is a prerequisite for increasing the share of cycling, which is absolutely necessary to achieve the European and national climate targets. In daily planning practice, the routing of cycling traffic in confined spaces is often a particular challenge. Although the regulations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland contain some recommendations for the guidance of cyclists on such stretches of road, there are great differences in the regulations and also in practice.
A cross-border consortium from Germany, Austria and Switzerland is now developing evidence-based recommendations for cycling guidance, especially in congested road conditions, as well as professionally sound evaluations of various alternative solutions. For the first time, this research work also creates a comparative empirical data basis for objective safety and subjective safety perception for representative stretches of road and different cycling routes. Both mobile and stationary sensor technologies – ultrasound, LIDAR and video – are used to measure objective safety. This is used, for example, to objectively assess overtaking procedures by motor vehicles. In addition to the objective sensor data, the subjective perception of safety is also recorded and analysed using surveys and sensor technology to measure stress.
Based on the empirical data, the researchers are drafting a guideline for action for cycling planning in federal states and municipalities. In addition, methods for the evidence-based evaluation of cycling routes will be derived so that individual solutions can also be monitored and evaluated in the long term. The recommendations will be available in mid-2024.
Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbH has overall coordination in this project and is involved in data collection and analysis for the measurement of objective safety.
RADBEST is a commissioned R&D service of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Climate Protection (BMK), the German Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport (BMDV) and the Swiss Federal Roads Office (ASTRA) under the programme management of the Austrian Research Promotion Agency mbH (FFG).
