Abstract

In Chile, the growing use of bicycles in recent years has raised cycling safety concerns. Bicycle crashes represent nearly 12% of the total number of the annual crashes and is the third type of transportation mode with most crashes after vehicles and pedestrians. This study identified statistically significant spatial clusters of bicycle crashes in Chile that have persevered over time and determined the existence of spatial dependence among crash attributes and road safety measures. Global and local spatial statistics was used to identify and measure the strength of these spatial clusters. The results indicate that a high positive overall spatial dependence was obtained for all road safety indicators of bicycle crashes. On average, recurrent local clusters of collisions are spatially correlated over time due to the presence of alcohol or drugs in the driver, passenger, or pedestrian and the imprudence of the driver along straight road segments and signalized intersections during the morning and afternoon in rural areas. Particularly, the communes of Curicó, Linares, and Talca in the Maule Region present the high local clustering intensities for most bicycle crash attributes. In addition, a spatial co-occurrence analysis was conducted to determine whether recurrent clusters of different bicycle crash attributes coincide spatially with clusters of crash outcomes and crash types. The results revealed that a large number of crash attributes tend to have a causal relationship with crash consequences due to a strong spatial coincidence in the commune of Curicó. The results of this study will aid transportation authorities to pave the way for future investment and focus on those communes that require bicycle safety improvement, in order to promote bicycle use for sustainable mobility.