News

Successful joint seminar – starting point for closer collaboration with Cykelcentrum

Nov, 04 2020

Today, SAFER and Cykelcentrum jointly arranged a seminar  - “We share the space – bicyclists and motor vehicles interacting; challenges and solutions -  to share results and discuss common challenges ahead, as well as address thoughts on solutions. The seminar was well attended, almost 100 participants from many different disciplines participated in the dialogue. The seminar was also the start of a closer collaboration between SAFER and Cykelcentrum.

Joint contributions to safer cycling
Cykelcentrum and SAFER intend to jointly contribute to increased cycling safety in Sweden through a closer cooperation. Magnus Granström, SAFER’s director comments on the collaboration:
“We will do this by, for example, sharing knowledge between us, such as publications and other research results generated within our respective centers. We aim to arrange various knowledge-building activities, gather around common research questions to create projects and inspire each other to think more broadly”.
Another purpose is to support our researchers with access to a wider network of expertise and to find project funding. The two centres also want to encourage financiers and demonstrate the needs of continuously creating relevant knowledge, in-depth research and implement safe solutions for increased cycling. 

The webinar dialogue gave valuable input to next steps
Four leading researchers presented their work, all linked to the theme. An expert panel with representatives from the vehicle industry – Peter Kronberg, Safety Director at Volvo Group, and Johanna Smedberg, Marketing Manager at Cycleurope – gave their reflections, for example suggestions for further research questions, possible solutions on how to utilize the research and take the knowledge forward into real products and implementation. 
It was concluded, among other things, that the cyclist's perspective is important in vehicle research and that some form of training for all users of the traffic system could add value. We also discussed acceptance, for example for new types of protective clothing that can help cyclists become more visible.
Moving at different speeds - more important than the type of vehicle? was another dialogue item. Speed difference is always a crucial aspect. 

“The funding aspect was also discussed with the participants. We see a potential to better access national research funding programmes, but also international funding opportunities like the recently launched EU Recovery and Resilience Fund initiatives”, Magnus says.

As a next step the participants suggested more focus on infrastructure related research and development of joint research project proposals. The safety cycling clothing initiatives was also something that created engagement and where the participants saw a great potential for further value-creating research.