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Bogot\u00e1, Colombia, is one of five cities in CycleRAP\u2019s international pilot program.<\/span><\/em> After launching CycleRAP in 2022, in 2023 iRAP\u00a0embarked on an international pilot project with the generous support\u00a0Fundaci\u00f3n MAPFRE<\/a>\u00a0PTV Group<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Union Cycliste Internationale<\/a>. We are so honoured to have the CycleRAP tool and pilots feature in the New York Times climate edition.<\/strong><\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to read the full article on NY Times or read below.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.22.1″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n By\u00a0<\/span>Tanya Mohn, <\/span>Sept. 20, 2023,\u00a02:09 p.m. ET<\/span><\/em> An international pilot program is helping cities to identify and pinpoint high risk locations where cyclists and light-mobility users are likely to have collisions.<\/p>\n Over 20 years, Fayetteville, Ark., steadily built a 110-mile bicycle network of paved and natural-surface trails that today weaves through the city.<\/p>\n Now, the city in northwest Arkansas plans an ambitious expansion that by 2040 is expected to provide entry points to the trail network within a few minutes\u2019 bike ride \u201cfrom every resident and every rooftop,\u201d said Brannon Pack, director of cycling tourism for Experience Fayetteville<\/a>, the city\u2019s official destination marketing organization. \u201cIf it\u2019s not accessible, you\u2019re going to be a lot less likely to utilize it as a form of transportation to minimize your carbon footprint.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n To help ensure the safety of its growing cycling infrastructure, Fayetteville city officials have turned to\u00a0CycleRAP<\/a>, a new risk-assessment tool designed to identify and pinpoint high-risk locations where cyclists and light-mobility users are likely to crash. (The terms light mobility and micro mobility are interchangeable, and refer to low-speed human or powered vehicles, like skateboards or e-bikes.)<\/p>\n \u201cIf we really want to make sure that urban mobility is sustainable into the future, and bicycling is part of that, safety is where it needs to start,\u201d said Monica Olyslagers, who oversees CycleRAP for the\u00a0International Road Assessment Programme<\/a>\u00a0(iRAP), a nonprofit that identifies high-risk roads in 128 countries.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2023\/09\/21\/multimedia\/21sp-cli-cycle-hbvj\/21sp-cli-cycle-hbvj-superJumbo.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp” _builder_version=”4.22.1″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.22.2″ _module_preset=”default” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Image and data collection in Fayetteville, Ark.<\/span><\/em> [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.22.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n The goal of CycleRAP\u2019s software model is to assist transport officials, policymakers and urban planners in addressing danger areas to prevent collisions that result in serious injury and death. Development began nearly 10 years ago, mostly focused in Europe, prompted by research about safety surrounding the proliferation of bicycles, e-bikes, scooters and other micro mobility, and the fact that up to 95 percent of hospitalizations internationally were due to crashes that didn\u2019t involve a vehicle, according to reports in the journals\u00a0Accident Analysis & Prevention<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Injury Prevention<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cBicycle crashes are underreported everywhere,\u201d Ms. Olyslagers said, \u201ceven in the most advanced cycling cities and countries. Many cities struggle to accommodate these new road users in a safe way, but it\u2019s hard when you don\u2019t know where the crashes are happening and don\u2019t have the data or the design know-how to come up with a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n Like Fayetteville, many cities around the world grapple with how to offer greener, safer mobility choices. Finding solutions to climate change on a local level is one of the topics being discussed by leaders in business, science and policy during\u00a0The New York Times Climate Forward event<\/a>\u00a0on Thursday.<\/p>\n Choosing a bike over a car just one trip a day reduces a person\u2019s carbon footprint by about half a ton a year, and cyclists have 84 percent lower carbon dioxide emissions from all daily travel than noncyclists, said Jill Warren, chief executive of the\u00a0European Cyclists\u2019 Federation<\/a>, quoting a recent report from the\u00a0University of Oxford\u2019s Transport Studies Unit<\/a>. \u201cBut survey after survey will show that the No. 1 reason people give for not cycling or not cycling more will be that feeling of safety. The No. 1 thing that communities can do is to make cycling safer by creating the right infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2023\/09\/21\/multimedia\/21sp-cli-cycle-jhvl\/21sp-cli-cycle-jhvl-jumbo.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp” _builder_version=”4.22.1″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.22.2″ _module_preset=”default” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Fayetteville plans an ambitious expansion that by 2040 is expected to provide entry points to the trail network within a few minutes\u2019 bike ride \u201cfrom every resident and every rooftop,\u201d Brannon Pack said.<\/em> [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.22.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n CycleRAP formally launched in 2022, and earlier this year\u00a0presented<\/a>\u00a0at the\u00a0International Transport Forum<\/a>\u2019s summit in Leipzig, Germany, on \u201cTransport Enabling Sustainable Economies<\/a>.\u201d Fayetteville is one of five cities where the program is currently being evaluated as part of an international pilot program. The other four are Barcelona, Spain; Bogot\u00e1, Colombia; Madrid; and S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil.<\/p>\n \u201cThe goal of the pilot is to showcase how CycleRAP can be used to meet the needs of people and cities globally,\u201d said Ms. Olyslagers, including cost. \u201cWe estimate that for approximately 60 miles of a downtown area, such as Seattle, the current cost would be approximately $200 per mile,\u201d for a total of $12,000. \u201cSuppliers all over the world can work out what the local needs are, including language differences, and tailor their software tools.\u201d<\/p>\n Cities identify where assessments should occur, then in frequent intervals, capture features of the roads and bike path, lanes and trails, including traffic speed and flow, via videos and data. Collection can be conducted by iRAP, suppliers (companies it trains) or by the cities themselves. ***<\/p>\n The collected information, which is from public spaces but with identifying features made anonymous, is then run through the CycleRAP software model by iRAP staff, or authorized companies, which calculates cyclists\u2019 risk for four crash types: conflicts with vehicles; other bicycles (or light mobility); pedestrians; or an object. Each crash type risk is rated low, medium, high or extreme, and is mapped. Safety recommendations typically include measures like widening bike paths, installing lighting or lowering traffic speeds.<\/p>\n In the pilot cities, preliminary results indicated most overall risk was due to vehicle-bicycle conflicts. In Bogot\u00e1, high pedestrian flow on shared sidewalks and steep roads increased the likelihood of cyclists crashing with walkers or something in the terrain. Assessments in Barcelona and Madrid focused primarily on ways to improve how bike paths and lanes were connected overall.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2023\/09\/21\/multimedia\/21sp-cli-cycle-wjqb\/21sp-cli-cycle-wjqb-jumbo.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp” _builder_version=”4.22.1″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.22.1″ _module_preset=”default” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Commuters in Bogot\u00e1.<\/span><\/em> [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.22.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n In S\u00e3o Paulo, the city\u2019s network \u201cis not as safe as we expected it to be,\u201d said Flavio Soares, project manager for Ciclocidade<\/a>, a nonprofit association of local urban cyclists that helped the city build its strategic climate-action plan to include targets for cycling.<\/p>\n The city plans to expand its infrastructure to accommodate the growing number of cyclists \u2014 an expected more than four-fold increase by 2030 \u2014 \u201cbut goals are not enough,\u201d Mr. Soares said.<\/p>\n A section of Consola\u00e7\u00e3o Street in S\u00e3o Paulo was rated as \u201cextreme risk\u201d for bicyclists being hit by vehicles that invade the cycle lane, including by Uber drivers picking up people, motorcyclists, or trucks unloading goods, Mr. Soares said. CycleRAP recommended removing parking, and including a protective barrier or making the infrastructure wider, or both.<\/p>\n Other pilot cities also are using CycleRAP to identify their own safety issues.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen some early data,\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>said Mr. Pack, who along with the city\u2019s active transportation manager and the mobility coordinator, recorded almost 50 miles of Fayetteville\u2019s network. \u201cClose to 70 percent of our network will be categorized as low or medium risk. That\u2019s good, but that also means that 30 percent of our network is likely to be rated at a high or extreme risk for conflict, so likely needs immediate or continued improvements. We have work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Final results from the pilot program will be presented at the\u00a0Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) Mobility and Bike City Forum<\/a>\u00a0in October in Bruges, Belgium, and used in workshops to help other cities improve safety.<\/p>\n
Image credit: <\/span>Jeffrey Greenberg\/Universal Images Group, via Getty Images<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\nTo Help Cyclists, and the Environment, This Tool Looks for Crashes<\/h1>\n
This article is part of NYT special section<\/a>\u00a0on the\u00a0Climate Forward event<\/a>\u00a0that will include policy and climate leaders from around the world.<\/em><\/p>\n
Image Credit: <\/span>Experience Fayetteville<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n
Image Credit: <\/span>Experience Fayetteville<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n
Image Credit: Daniel Munoz\/Agence France-Presse \u2014 Getty Images<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n