Cycling Research Board Annual Meeting

Cycling infrastructure is typically evaluated on safety and comfort, but comprehensibility has emerged as a key factor shaping how cyclists perceive and use it (see Friel & Wachholz, 2025). While research exists on understanding as an individual cognitive process, the social dimensions and interactions remain less explored.

In this study, infrastructure is reinterpreted as a communicative interface. In urban traffic, cyclists and car drivers are engaged in a constant interpretive process, anticipating actions and negotiating space and priority.

The project combines transport planning, psychology, and simulation technology to explore how design shapes communication between road users. Using crowdsourced data locations of problematic cyclist–driver interactions in Berlin are identified (https://infrastrukturberlin.de/). These locations are recreated in a coupled simulation, enabling cyclists and drivers to interact in one shared virtual environment. Systematic variation of design elements reveals how meaning, expectation, and behavior emerge. Using paired qualitative interviews, I aim to capture participants’ experiences and interpretations, comparing perceptual differences and revealing how interactions are co-constructed.

Preliminary findings suggest that infrastructure is not merely a technical object but a medium that shapes social behavior. At CRB, I will present this methodological approach and initial interview results, aiming to spark a discussion on two key questions:

1. When should infrastructure be addressed as a social issue rather than a technical problem?
2. Does “intelligible” infrastructure resolve conflicts, or does it merely shift responsibility onto users?

This work challenges the field to move beyond individual perception, framing infrastructure as a site of shared interaction - and conflict – that demands both technical and social solutions.