🚲 City Exploration – Bike Safety & Infrastructure Risk Analysis (Boston)
Left: High-risk intersection with shared bike lanes and heavy vehicle interaction (Source: Google Maps)
Right: Spatial distribution of bicycle crash hotspots and nearby infrastructure types (Author’s analysis)
Research Question
Why do certain Bluebikes stations in Boston consistently experience higher bicycle accident rates despite overall improvements in bike infrastructure?
Data & Methods
- Vision Zero crash data (2015, 2024)
- Bluebikes station location data
- Distance-based spatial proximity analysis (
st_is_within_distance) - GIS mapping and infrastructure classification
Key Findings
- Persistent high-risk stations across both years
- Strong association with shared or unprotected bike lanes
- High exposure along major vehicular corridors
- Improving bike safety requires qualitative upgrades to infrastructure, particularly physical separation in high-risk areas.