Virtual reality (VR) technology could help design safer infrastructure for bike riders new research has found.
A team at Chemnitz Technology University in Germany used VR and stereoscopic 360 degree images in the street outside the campus to evaluate its subjective safety as experienced by riders.
The subjects used VR headsets to view the images.
Generally measures required to reduce risks to riders are well understood, but riders do not always favour such routes as their perceptions of risk can differ from measured risk.
The research approach aimed to identify these subjective factors without putting riders in possible danger by first simulating the routes and treatments in a VR environment.
In this study the researchers found that the VR evaluation largely confirmed that the streets were both objectively and subjectively safe.
And it confirmed the results of many other studies that the two key factors riders need is wide lanes and reduced traffic volumes and speeds.
One interesting result of the study is that experienced riders had somewhat different perceptions of safety than inexperienced riders, being more concerned, for example, riding near kerbing.
Another was that the results of the evaluation were similar whether or not the rider was familiar with the street before the VR viewing.
The street studied was a designated "bicycle street", which in Germany permits cars to share the street, but at low speeds.
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