Spatial analysis of overtaking manoeuvres

Suggested by: Christian Werner, Martin Loidl

Short description: Lateral distance decides on the safety of cyclists during overtaking manoeuvres. A new federal law in Austria requires a maximum distance for overtaking manoeuvres. Interestingly, many cycle lanes in urban environments have less width than the required minimum distance. Therefore, cities are forced to either broaden cycle lanes (which is often not possible) or remove them entirely if a road is re-organized. Low-cost sensors for measuring lateral distances of cyclists facilitate the collection of big amounts of data. We are interested in systematically analysing overtaking distances in urban road networks. Moreover, relating such findings with perceived level of safety could inform planners and decision makers in finding optimal solutions under current legal, technical, and spatial conditions.

Research for this master thesis should address one or more of the following topics (but is not limited to):

• Building new sensor devices or improving existing OpenBikeSensors (we have 4 devices).
• Data collection in a crowd-sourcing campaign.
• Spatial analysis of collected distance data.
• Investigation of perceived level of safety among sampled cyclists.

References, suggested reading:

• https://www.openbikesensor.org/
• VON STÜLPNAGEL, R., HOLOGA, R. & RIACH, N. 2022. Cars overtaking cyclists on different urban road types – Expectations about passing safety are not aligned with observed passing distances. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 89, 334-346.
• WERNER, C., FÜSSL, E., RIESS, J., KRATOCHWIL, F., RESCH, B. & LOIDL, M. (in preparation). A framework to facilitate advanced mixed methods studies for investigating interventions in road space. Sustainability. (access to pre-print upon request)

Related to projects: RADBEST

Start/finish: anytime

Prerequisites/qualifications: Interest in mobility research and planning. Scripting, database and spatial analytics (network analysis) skills. Hardware building (optional).
Depending on interest and availability, this master thesis project could be linked to a study assistent position.