title: Multiuse trail intersection safety analysis: A crowdsourced data perspective.
abstract: Real and perceived concerns about cycling safety are a barrier to increased ridership in many cities. Many people prefer to bike on facilities separated from motor vehicles, such as multiuse trails. However, due to underreporting, cities lack data on bike collisions, especially along greenways and multiuse paths. We used a crowdsourced cycling incident dataset (2005-2016) from BikeMaps.org for the Capital Regional District (CRD), BC, Canada. Our goal was to identify design characteristics associated with unsafe intersections between multiuse trails and roads. 92.8% of mapped incidents occurred between 2014 and 2016. We extracted both collision and near miss incidents at intersections from BikeMaps.org. We conducted site observations at 32 intersections where a major multiuse trail intersected with roads. We compared attributes of reported incidents at multiuse trail-road intersections to those at road-road intersections. We then used negative binomial regression to model the relationship between the number of incidents and the infrastructure characteristics at multiuse trail-road intersections. We found a higher proportion of collisions (38%, or 17/45 total reports) at multiuse trail-road intersections compared to road-road intersections (23%, or 62/268 total reports). A higher proportion of incidents resulted in an injury at multiuse trail-road intersections compared to road-road intersections (33% versus 15%). Cycling volumes, vehicle volumes, and trail sight distance were all associated with incident frequency at multiuse trail-road intersections. Supplementing traditional crash records with crowdsourced cycling incident data provides valuable evidence on cycling safety at intersections between multiuse trails and roads, and more generally, when conflicts occur between diverse transportation modes.
authors.affiliation: University of Victoria, 3800 Finnerty Road, Victoria, BC, V8P 5C2, Canada. Electronic address: bjestico@uvic.ca.
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jestico
authors.affiliation: Arizona State University, 975 S. Myrtle Ave., Tempe, AZ, 85287, United States. Electronic address: Trisalyn.Nelson@asu.edu.
authors.forename: Trisalyn A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.affiliation: Bunt & Associates, 535-645 Fort Street, Victoria, BC, V8W 1G2, Canada. Electronic address: victoria@bunteng.com.
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Potter
authors.affiliation: Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6, Canada. Electronic address: mwinters@sfu.ca.
authors.forename: Meghan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Winters
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001642:Bicycling / Q000293:injuries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002170:Canada; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002947:Cities; D063045:Crowdsourcing / Q000379:methods*; D004779:Environment Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018986:Motor Vehicles / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012449:Safety; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Collision; Crowdsource; Cycling; Multiuse trail; Near miss; Safety