Conflicts between bikes and trucks in urban areas—A survey of Norwegian cyclists

Abstract

Several challenges accompany the current growth of bike and truck volumes in urban areas, with traffic safety being one of the most critical concerns. Bike-truck accidents present a direct measure of the safety; however, these are rare events. Furthermore, accident records are subject to several shortcomings. Thus, safety studies should not rely solely on accident analysis, and conducting the additional methods is advisable (e.g. surveys or conflict analysis). This paper discusses the results of a retrospective survey of Norwegian utilitarian cyclists, which collected data about their involvement in conflicts with trucks in urban areas. An online questionnaire was disseminated within major cities in Norway, and 631 valid responses were analysed. The results revealed large numbers of conflicts experienced by cyclists, with the most frequent types of conflicts being (1) truck overtaking bicyclist and (2) right-turning truck vs. straightriding bicyclist and. Visibility issues were frequently mentioned as the important risk factors. Almost all cyclists blamed truck drivers as the party responsible for the conflict. The distribution of conflict categories differed between major Norwegian cities, which corresponds with the findings of a previous accident analysis. Insights developed are useful to local policy makers both in Norway and abroad, when considering how to plan for increasing numbers of cyclists and trucks in urban areas.

Truck-bicycle safety: an overview of methods of study, risk factors and research needs

“…Furthermore, albeit all reviewed conflict studies have recognised the conflicts based on an evasive action, the threshold between evasive and normal action was identified subjectively without any quantification. This potentially contributes to the different conflict rates observed between studies -one study identified two conflicts during 100 h of observation, while the other one identified 71 conflicts in 129 h [30,41].…”

Urban Cycling as an Indicator of Socio-Economic Innovation and Sustainable Transport

“…The first direction of study analysed in a vast array of publications refers to cyclists' interactions with other road users in the context of different infrastructural solutions, most often in relation to potential conflict situations (Silvano et al 2016;Stipancic et al 2016;Apasnore et al 2017;Pokorny et al 2018) and those resulting in accidents (Pokorny et al 2017;Lopez et al 2017). Research also covers the relationship between factors contributing to cyclists' collisions with vehicles and the severity of their injuries (Kim et al 2007).…”

Trialing a Road Lane to Bicycle Path Redesign—Changes in Travel Behavior with a Focus on Users’ Route and Mode Choice

“…However, rates vary considerably between summer (12%) and winter (4%) [25]. Relative to other Norwegian cities, the situation for cycling is characterized by reasonable separate infrastructure in a low-density grid outside the city center; however, with a discontinuous inner-city bicycle network [26]. Trips made on foot represent 28% of all journeys in Trondheim, whilst 1% are made by other forms of transport.…”