Abstract
Bicycle behavior of riding on a sidewalk is normally seen in Japan, but recently its safety is regarded as questionable from various viewpoints. In this study the authors focused on a near-miss incident data recorded on a driving recorder and developed the near-miss incident database to meet needs of bicycle behavior safety analyses. Based on this database, characteristics of bicycle near-miss incident were revealed. Furthermore we estimated the risk characterization of the near-miss incidents by analyzing the driving acts of drivers and the vehicle behavior on the basis of a difference in running routes of bicycles at the intersections of the arterial street and the narrow street. As a result, it became clear that a bicycle running on a sidewalk irrespective a distance from a carriageway and the wrong way on a carriageway has a high risk. The following advisable bicycle riding manner was supported therefore: a bicycle should keep on the left side of a carriageway in principle, and if no choice but to ride on a sidewalk, run slowly on the side of carriageway in the same direction of a car.
