Establishing normative scores of affect, safety, and comfort for bicycling infrastructure and traffic conditions

Perceptions of safety and comfort are key components of bicyclist user experiences and influence bicycling uptake. Existing video-based surveys show that environments with greater separation of bicycle and motor traffic are associated with greater subjective safety and comfort. However, these studies have not compared on-road and off-road bicycling infrastructure, the relationship between subjective safety/comfort and measures of emotion, nor established normative scores of safety and comfort with representative samples. This survey study aimed to establish normative scores of affect (defined as perceived safety, comfort, valence and arousal) for video clips depicting first-person riding in different infrastructure and traffic environments in an age and gender representative sample of Australian adults aged 18 to 80 years (N = 1737). Results showed that off-road shared paths and separated bike lanes provided the subjectively safest and most comfortable riding environments, while there was significant overlap in affect scores for painted bike lane and mixed traffic environments in low traffic levels. Linear multilevel models revealed gender, bicycling confidence, and Geller typology differences in affect scores. Scores of valence, arousal, safety, and comfort were highly correlated. These results highlight the individuality of subjective perceptions across demographic sub-groups and the need for representative samples in research. They also reinforce the need for planners to prioritise off-road shared paths and separated bike lanes, which offer the most positive biking experiences. Finally, designing infrastructure with user experiences in mind (i.e., to foster positive emotions and safety) may make biking more attractive, encouraging more people to ride.