Evaluating Road Environment Factors Impacting Cyclist Safety in Dublin City Using Geospatial Solutions
Document Type Doctoral Thesis
Presented in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Technological University Dublin, 2024.
https://doi.org/10.21427/7wyb-6935
Abstract
This overall aim of this research is to identify road safety measures to reduce the risk for cyclists being seriously injured or killed on roads in Dublin city. This research investigates how effective alternative georeferenced bicycle safety data sources examined through a geospatial lens can address road safety issues and provide more insight into risk factors contributing to cyclist collisions in the road network. Emergency Response Records (ERRs) and crowd sourced bicycle safety data were used as suitable supplementary data sources. Two different typologies were developed using clustering methods. The first is a cyclist typology that identified different types of cyclists, while the second typology identified different cyclist collision types.
The majority of injured cyclists recorded in ERRs were involved in a Single Bicycle Collisions (SBCs) (86.6%), only 0.3% of them were reported to the police. SBCs occurred more frequently at mid-block locations in residential areas which is different to cyclist collisions reported in PCRs which were mostly Bicycle Motorised Vehicle (BMV) collisions (81.6%) and occurred more frequently at intersections. Hazardous Road Locations (HRLs) associated with the different cyclist collision types were identified using Geospatial solutions that confirmed in the road environment collisions with similar characteristics are more likely to be located close to one another. Details about HRLs were further enhanced with the narrative provided in comments by cyclists in the crowd sourced bicycle safety apps. This information is important for guiding policymakers when making evidence-based decisions on the most effective road safety measures to improve cyclist safety.
