mFUND joint project “Space2Ride”: Cycling in Leipzig - Which infrastructure ensures which lateral overtaking distances?

It is a daily scenario on German roads: Cyclists are overtaken by motor vehicles at a short distance - despite the strict regulations in the most recent road traffic regulations amendment. This is a stressful situation for cyclists. Their subjective feeling of security is severely restricted. For some, this is even an important reason not to use the bike in everyday life as intended. Traffic planners therefore look individually at the municipalities, where structural interventions in the infrastructure can avoid such close contact between cyclists and motor vehicles.

But first of all it is necessary to identify the places in the city where motorized and cycling road users come (too) close. This is where the joint project “Space2Ride” in Leipzig starts in July 2021. For this purpose, cameras with integrated sensors are used on bicycles to measure lateral distance. They create a database for the lateral overtaking distance of cyclists by vehicles. The “Space2Ride” project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) as part of the mFUND innovation initiative with a total of 100,000 euros. The project will run from July 2021 to June 2022.

Critical infrastructure situations are automatically made visible

By evaluating the data, relevant influencing factors can be identified and, in close cooperation with the City of Leipzig, the safety of cyclists can be significantly improved. "The project is intended to help make critical infrastructure situations automatically visible and thus make cycling safer," says Dipl.-Ing. Sven Lißner, research assistant and project coordinator at the professorship for traffic ecology of the faculty of traffic sciences "Friedrich List" at the TU Dresden. “Space2Ride” is a joint project of the Professorship for Transport Ecology and Dashfactory GmbH in Jena.

In a first step, test subjects in the Leipzig study area are selected via an online survey. The aim is to create a test group of at least 200 cyclists that is representative of the population. The sensors (“dash bikes”) are then distributed to the test subjects in the form of a rear light. A field phase of several weeks follows. Lelia König, CEO at Dashfactory GmbH, explains: "In the field phase, each test person takes the sensor along on everyday cycle paths and automatically records the lateral overtaking distances of the passing vehicles." The recorded data is then blended with spatial structural features and with field observations compared. "We want to use this to identify parameters that make overtaking too close", says Sven Lißner. The result data will be published on the urban data platform of the city of Leipzig.

Further information on the project can be found on the BMVI website:
https://www.bmvi.de/SharedDocs/DE/Artikel/DG/mfund-projekte/space-2-ride.html

The date for the kick-off meeting of the project partners and opportunities to participate in the empirical study will be announced on the project website of the Professorship for Transport Ecology at the TU Dresden and via the Dashfactory GmbH's social media channels: https://tud.link/ehxk

About the BMVI's mFUND: As part of the mFUND innovation initiative, the BMVI has been funding data-based research and development projects for digital and networked mobility 4.0 since 2016. The project funding is supplemented by active professional networking between actors from politics, business, administration and research and by the provision of open data on the mCLOUD portal. More information at: www.mfund.de

Information about the project:
Sven Lißner
Professorship for Transport Ecology
Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences „Friedrich List“, TU Dresden
Tel.: 0351 463-36929

Informationen for journalists:
Anke Richter-Baxendale, public relation
Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences „Friedrich List“, TU Dresden
Tel.:  0351 463-34908