Subjective experiences of bicyclists being passed by motor vehicles: The relationship to motor vehicle passing distance

Background

Feeling unsafe when riding a bicycle is a key barrier to cycling participation. To better understand the experiences of cycling on-road, this study aimed to explore the relationship between cyclists’ subjective experiences and the lateral passing distance of motor vehicles.

Methods

An on-road observational study was conducted in Victoria, Australia. Participants had a custom device installed on their bicycle that measured the lateral passing distance of motor vehicles and included a handlebar mounted “panic button” that participants could press when they felt that a passing event was too close or unsafe. A random effects logistic regression model was used to investigate the relationship between cyclist sex, motor vehicle type and infrastructure characteristics, and button press events.

Results

A total of 217 button press events were recorded (1.2 % of all passing events) from 60 participants. For events with a passing distance closer than 100 cm, 10.4 % of these events had a recorded button press. The adjusted odds of a button press event were over three-fold higher when the rider was passed by a truck, compared to when the rider was passed by a sedan. The predicted probability of a button press event was higher in events occurring in road environments with no bike lane and no parked cars (1.9 %) compared to no bike lane with parked cars (1.2 %), a bike lane with no parked cars (0.9 %) and a bike lane with parked cars (0.7 %).

Conclusions

The study identified important links between cyclists’ subjective experience of unsafe events, motor vehicle types and infrastructure characteristics. Greater emphasis needs to be placed on capturing subjective experiences to inform and advance the development and implementation of safe and comfortable cycling infrastructure.