Safer cycling: New project aims to capture safety measures for single bicycle crashes
In a move to address the alarming rate of serious injuries resulting from single bicycle crashes (SBCs) in Sweden, SAFER partners announce a new project aiming to address these cases.
Comprising over 80% of cyclist serious injuries, SBCs have long been a critical yet overlooked incident type in road safety research. However, SAFER's partners seek to shift the paradigm with its innovative project: Surrogate Measures of Safety for Single Bicycle Crashes (SMoS4SBC), or in Swedish, “Indirekta trafiksäkerhetsindikatorer för cyklisters singelolyckor.”
To increase our understanding of and mitigate SBCs, this project aims to develop video-based techniques for proactively assessing their risk factors. Leveraging state-of-the-art computer vision techniques and mathematical modeling of bicycle/rider motion, the project aims to develop tracking algorithms capable of extracting safety-related data from video footage.
"By employing advanced algorithms, we aim to infer the kinematics and dynamics of cyclists in the traffic environment. We will then use these algorithms to define and identify subtle yet critical indicators - known as surrogate measures of safety—that precede falls," says Kevin Gildea, project leader from Lund University.
The aspiration is to lay the groundwork for a more comprehensive understanding of SBCs, paving the way for targeted interventions and infrastructure improvements aimed at bolstering cyclist safety.
Spanning from January 1, 2024, to January 1, 2026, with funding of 2400TKR from Trafikverket, this collaborative effort brings together expertise from researchers at the Faculty of Engineering (LTH), Lund University, and the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI). Together, the project team is committed to leveraging technology and data-driven insights to enhance road safety for cyclists.
