How safe do you feel? – A large-scale survey concerning the subjective safety associated with different kinds of cycling lanes

There is ample evidence that adequate cycling infrastructure increases cyclists' safety. There is less research to what extent the specific design of cycling lanes affects subjective safety. We address this question by analysing data from a large-scale online survey, where participants rated images illustrating a wide range of cycling infrastructure designs for the anticipated level of subjective safety when imagining to cycle at the displayed location. Cycling tracks are perceived as safer than cycling lanes, which in turn are preferred over cycling on the street. Physical separations from the car lane, a greater lane width, and a coloured surface contribute most to a high subjective safety of cycling lanes. Additional buffers on the left- and right side of cycling lanes can have varying effects. On narrower cycling lanes, people experience extensive buffer designs as rather constraining and as impairing their safety. Combining several safety features (i.e. a sufficient demarcation of the left buffer and a coloured surface) is not necessarily beneficial for subjective safety. Our findings are mostly in line with findings on the factors benefitting or impairing objective safety. However, the relation of subjective and objective safety requires further attention.