The State of North Rhine-Westphalia is endeavouring to reduce the ecological impact of traffic, achieve the key objective of ‘Vision Zero’ (no injuries or fatalities in traffic) and at the same time promote a socially just mobility transition.

The state's Bicycle and Local Mobility Act provides for all modes of transport to be on an equal footing in future. Such a balanced transport system should make it possible and easier for people to choose the most suitable mode of transport for their particular journey.

In order to realise this multimodal future, the transport infrastructure in urban, suburban and rural areas must be designed to ensure safety and efficiency for all transport users. Planning in regions with pronounced relief poses a particular challenge. Here, roads are often steep, narrow and winding, and the gradient of the terrain makes the expansion of roads, railways and infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists considerably more difficult. However, the topography not only has a technical impact on the infrastructure, but also influences people's mobility behaviour. In hilly regions, residents use their cars more often, which leads to a lower proportion of cycling.

The APEx project aims to investigate the behaviour of cyclists and their interactions with other road users on sections of road with steep gradients in order to derive recommendations for the design of cycling infrastructure and to promote the development of intelligent transport systems and technological innovations such as driver assistance systems.

Various methods of systematic data collection are used to investigate the behaviour of cyclists and their interactions. Firstly, floating bicycle data is collected and evaluated from cyclists with different socio-economic backgrounds and experience in cycling in order to analyse their tactical and operational behaviour in road traffic. This data is collected using bicycles equipped with sensors that record position, speed, power, altitude and other relevant factors throughout the journey. Secondly, interviews will be conducted with cyclists who have suffered an accident to gain deeper insights into the mechanisms that lead to accidents in hilly areas.

This combination of subjective (surveys and interviews) and objective data enables a detailed analysis of the factors that affect road safety in hilly terrain and at safety-critical points. The results of this analysis serve as a basis for the development of behavioural models that depict the behaviour of cyclists under different conditions and in complex traffic situations.

The aim of the project is to formulate well-founded recommendations for the planning and design of road traffic facilities, the development of intelligent transport systems and specific requirements for innovative technologies on the part of cars and bicycles. These recommendations for action will enable regions with steep gradients in particular to develop a more balanced and safer transport system with more cyclists.

This project is funded by the Eugen Otto Butz Foundation.

Three years

Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Heather Kaths
kaths[at]uni-wuppertal.de
+49 (0)202 / 439 4433