LD: Professor Buehler, your book “Cycling for Sustainable Cities” was recently published. In the description it says: “Cycling for Sustainable Cities” shows how to make city cycling safe, practical, and convenient for all ages and abilities. What are your suggestions on how this can be achieved?

RB: Thank you very much for the invitation. First of all, cycling planning should include all population groups. We should try to plan cycling infrastructure in such a way that it is equally accessible for children and senior citizens and also includes all groups in between, so that all cyclists feel safe. This means that on roads with faster vehicle traffic and higher traffic volumes, we need separate facilities for cyclists, ideally with the help of separation by kerbs or other physical measures. At intersections, we also need to think more about the safety of cyclists in order to prevent conflicts, e.g. when turning. We also need traffic-calming in residential areas where vehicle traffic moves more slowly or where there are lower traffic volumes so that cyclists can share the road with motor vehicles. And finally, a more inclusive culture of cycling is needed. Cycling is often associated with attributes such as masculine, sporty, tech-savvy and risk-taking. This can put people off because they are not part of this group. Cycling culture itself needs to open up.

LD: Why do you think it is important to support cycling in the city?

RB: The bicycle is pretty ideal for cities when you think about how little space it takes for movement and parking and how inexpensive it is to build cycling infrastructure - compared to public transportation systems and road spaces. The bicycle is also ideal in terms of affordability, it produces few emissions and cycling is ultimately beneficial to individual and public health. The bicycle is the ideal means of transportation for the city as part of the transport mix, alongside walking and public transport.

In cities, we are currently seeing some very lively discussions for and against cycling. Over the last decades cities have been built around cars; and now the aim is to reclaim some of the road space. This battle for road space is in parts very controversial and emotional for people.

LD: What other research interests are you pursuing?

RB: Cycling is a big part of my research and has now become a large field of research. Another area of research is pedestrian traffic, particularly with regard to traffic safety. A lack of basic data about walking and pedestrians is key challenges here.

In a current project in Washington D.C., we are working with permanent electronic counters that count cyclists and pedestrians. With the help of cameras, we validate the functioning of the counters. We then compare the resulting data with GPS data for the same location. Ideally, the data set collected in this way can be extrapolated to other parts of the trail network in order to make statements about traffic behavior and better plan bicyclist and pedestrian traffic.

In another project, we are looking at public transport after Covid in an international comparison. Here we are investigating the extent to which demand for public transport has recovered compared to the period before the pandemic and whether there are variations in demand. Here we see clear differences between the respective countries overall, but also, for example, a shift in demand for local transport within the week. The data collected can in turn be used to derive recommendations for public transport timetables and intervals.

LD: You are currently a Dresden Senior Fellow at TU Dresden. What are your plans for your stay at our faculty?

RB: There are many points of contact with Regine Gerike's Chair of Mobility System Planning, e.g. with the research groups on pedestrian traffic or road safety. I find the “Mobility in Cities - SrV” study exciting, which offers numerous synergies with my research and shows that we are researching at the cutting edge.

The main idea of my stay is to further intensify the existing joint research activities with the Chair of Mobility System Planning. For example, we have already looked at the Travel Behavior of Older Adults. Now we want to investigate the mobility of children in an international comparison. To do this, we first want to collect data on the number and length of journeys that children make unaccompanied in order to be able to make statements about the development of their mobility behavior.

We wish Prof. Buehler an exciting and rewarding time at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences and every success with his research projects.