First large-scale survey of municipal bicycle traffic

First large-scale survey of local cycling traffic - Movebis research project provides data basis for needs-oriented planning of cycling infrastructure

More than 1,400 municipalities in Germany now have access to data on their local cycling traffic - where do many people regularly cycle, where does the traffic flow and where does the traffic flow come to a standstill. This is made possible by the digital platform of the Movebis research project, which goes online today and illustrates a variety of data relevant to planning in digital traffic maps.

The needs-oriented expansion of cycling infrastructure presents problems for many municipalities, as the data basis is often lacking. At best, there are a few counting stations on site at the main traffic points - often not even that. "The results of the Movebis research project allow cycling planners in many German municipalities to take a look at the spatial distribution and behavior of their cyclists for the first time and thus gain important insights for further planning," says transport ecologist Sven Lißner from the Technical University of Dresden, which is involved in the project.

"The interest among municipalities was enormous right from the start," says André Muno of the Climate Alliance network of cities. The world's largest cycling campaign CITY CYCLING which he heads and which now has over half a million participants, provided the data basis for the research project. The bike rides were recorded with an app and the tracks were then anonymously transmitted to the TU Dresden for evaluation. Since 2018, a total of 3.4 million track records have been collected from more than 160,000 app users. "The platform we developed for processing the tracks combines innovative algorithms and modern visualization technologies and takes an important step forward in the digitization of cycling planning at the municipal level," says Philipp Grubitzsch from the professorship of computer networks at TU Dresden.

Planners can use the platform to see where cyclists stand at red lights and for how long or where supposedly well-developed cycle paths are surprisingly avoided. "It's a great result that will allow us to improve cycling infrastructure closer to the actual needs of cyclists," says André Muno.