How can we make cycling in big cities safer? Here’s the answer

Riding a bike can be an easy, fun, sustainable and healthy way of transportation. Considering these positive aspects of cycling, cities should focus on becoming more bicycle-friendly. While there are cycle enthusiasts that have used their bike for as long as they can remember and use it to go almost everywhere, 40% of cyclists in Germany do not feel safe when riding a bike (BMVBS & ADFC, 2019).

Looking at these suboptimal conditions for a sustainable future with increased bicycle usage, we decided that we wanted to change something. There must be a solution that makes riding a bike safer and is relatively easy and quick to implement. We wanted to make a sustainable impact on the bicycle infrastructure in cities. We found a way to do so.

Let us introduce you to ROUTEMESAFE.

ROUTEMESAFE is an upcoming smartphone app which aims at making cycling safer. With this crowdsourcing app, places perceived as unsafe by individual cyclists can be marked on an interactive map and therefore made visible to all users, offering an overview of especially unsafe spots in the area. So, before heading out with your bike, you can always check the conditions of your route, and see e.g. if there are any construction sites or other obstacles. By using ROUTEMESAFE, you are better prepared for your bike route. It is also a great way to check the route for your kids. Additionally, you can also add dangerous spots while you ride past them. In order to do so, you simply have to tap the screen and describe the hazard after your journey. Thereby, you can help your fellow bikers to stay safe. By using a thumbs-up voting function we ensure with the help of our users, that only valid and up-to-date danger spots are displayed.

You might think that the smartphone app is enough because it already fulfills your own needs and those of your fellow cyclists. But we wanted to cycle the extra mile and include the local authorities. One key feature of our ideal vision of ROUTEMESAFE is the connection to urban planners in the city administration. The responsible department receives all dangerous spots that are marked by users in the app in order to get real-time feedback on the status of the road conditions for cyclists. Authorities are encouraged to use this information as a basis for decision making regarding the future bicycle infrastructure in your city. If a dangerous spot gets marked over and over again by several cyclists and receives lots of traffic, this can pose a trigger for infrastructural measures, e.g. fixing holes in the street or installing a bike lane.

By combining a crowdsourcing app with the power of local authorities we are confident to see a change in bicycle safety through ROUTEMESAFE – and hopefully an increase in cycling activities in the near future.

 

Want to come for a ride?

What do you think about bike safety in metropolitan areas in general and our app in particular? Let us know!

ROUTEMESAFE is currently available as a prototype. Want to become a Beta tester? Contact us!

We conducted several studies during the process to ensure that the users’ needs are met. Click here to read our research on cycling safety and feel free to reach out to get more information on our target group and user experience research. In case you have any feedback, feel free to contact us. We’re more than happy to hear it.

For safer cycling in metropolitan areas.

 

References:

BMVBS; ADFC, 2019, Fahrrad-Monitor Deutschland 2019, Erhebung durch polis+sinus

Veröffentlicht durch BMVBS, https://www.bmvi.de/SharedDocs/DE/Anlage/K/fahrradmonitor-2019-ergebnisse.pdf?__blob=publicationFile