APEx Kick-off Meeting
On 12 May, the Chair of Bicycle Traffic at the University of Wuppertal held the kick-off meeting for the new joint research project APEx together with the team of Prof. Dr. Antoine Tordeux from the Chair of Traffic Safety and Reliability, which is funded by the Eugen-Otto-Butz Foundation.
APEx (“Ausarbeitung von Planungswerkzeugen unter Berücksichtigung topographischer Einflüsse auf Verhalten, Interaktionen und Unfallrisiko im Radverkehr”) investigates how steep terrain shapes cycling behaviour, interactions with other road users, and crash risk, with the goal of developing planning tools for safer bicycle traffic in hilly regions. The project combines two pillars: “Topography and Behaviour”, led by Prof. Heather Kaths, and “Safety at Intersections”, led by Prof. Antoine Tordeux, and will deliver data-driven safety recommendations and an enhanced version of the open-source traffic simulation software SUMO.
At the kick-off in Wuppertal, the APEx team members from the Chair of Bicycle Traffic – Heather Kaths, Zouheir Alameddine, Nils Harder, and Danil Belikhov – met with Antoine Tordeux and Basma Khelfa to coordinate the collaboration. During the meeting, the group discussed project goals and timelines, exchanged information on current work phases, and brainstormed next steps and new research ideas for analysing cycling safety together. They also tested the instrumented e-bikes that will be used for data collection on cycling behaviour in real traffic.
The APEx team will continue to share updates on data collection, modelling progress, and first results on cycling safety in hilly regions on the BT website and through future news posts.
