BikeMaps.org: A Global Tool for Collision and Near Miss Mapping

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Transportation Safety
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Background:

• Cycling offers significant public health benefits, including chronic disease reduction and improved air quality.
• Safety concerns, both real and perceived, are major deterrents to increased cycling participation.
• Limited official reporting channels for cycling incidents result in insufficient data for comprehensive safety studies and surveillance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce BikeMaps.org, a novel crowd-sourced website for mapping cycling collisions and near misses.
• To provide a global platform for citizens to report and map cycling incidents, collecting detailed attributes for spatial analysis.
• To enhance the understanding of cycling safety predictors, aid surveillance, and inform urban planning.

Main Methods:

• Development and launch of BikeMaps.org, a web-based global mapping system.
• Citizen engagement to report and map cycling collisions and near misses with detailed attributes.
• Data quality assessment based on report completeness.

Main Results:

• BikeMaps.org attracted over 14,000 visitors and data mapping in 14 countries within two months of its October 2014 release.
• Reports comprised 38% collisions and 62% near misses.
• In Victoria, Canada, citizen-reported data within two months was equivalent to approximately one year of official collision reports.
• Early data quality assessment indicated high completeness, with 50% of reports fully attributed and 10% missing only one attribute.

Conclusions:

• BikeMaps.org effectively crowdsources valuable data on cycling incidents, addressing critical data gaps.
• The platform demonstrates potential for rapid data collection comparable to official sources, aiding safety research and planning.
• Ongoing technological advancements, including a mobile app and improved data visualization, will further enhance the utility of BikeMaps.org.