Bike and safety in the city: the development of transport infrastructure

Abstract

In this research paper, safety problem of cyclists on the road is considered. Modern bicycle infrastructure or its absence in St. Petersburg does not allow cyclists to feel safe while cycling around the city, and also discourages citizens from the potential use of a bicycle, which is confirmed by a survey of the population conducted by St. Petersburg City Parking Control Center.

In order to identify the most dangerous districts for cycling, the open data of the traffic police of road accidents involving cyclists from 2015 to 2017, as well as the initial data of St. Petersburg CPCC survey were analyzed. With the help of the survey data, bicycle streams along the city districts were simulated, and the joint use of accident statistics made it possible to identify the emergency danger of the city districts. Preprocessing and analysis of accident data were performed using the R programming language in RStudio.

As a result, by using public and urban data, the cycle flow was modeled around the city's districts, and the most dangerous areas of the city were identified, primarily in need of a safe bicycle infrastructure. Recommendations are given to the state authorities of St. Petersburg on the popularization of cycling.