Street Intersection Characteristics and Their Impacts on Perceived Bicycling Safety

Abstract

Safety concerns are among the main issues that deter people from bicycling in the U.S. Earlier studies have explored the associations between characteristics of intersection design and bicyclists’ safety perceptions. Research shows that there are significant links between bicycling choice, safety perceptions, bicycling experience levels, and socio-demographics. Yet the existing bicycling safety-rating models do not control for individuals’ socio-demographics and their levels of bicycling experience, which are known to affect bicycling choice. This study develops a Perceived Bicycling Intersection Safety (PBIS) model which helps engineers, planners, and decision makers to understand better how a wide range of intersection features contribute to bicyclists’ safety perceptions, controlling for socio-demographics and bicycling experience. The empirical analysis is based on an online visual survey conducted at the main campus of The Ohio State University through March and April 2017. Results showed that visual surveys are effective in capturing information about bicycling preferences. The paper concludes with recommendations for infrastructure decisions and suggestions for future research. The results of this study can help planners design street intersections that bicyclists will prefer. Our model can be applied elsewhere to test the effects of different intersection and street features.