On the location of reported and unreported cycling accidents: A spatial network analysis for Brussels

This paper aims to compare the spatial distributions of road accidents involving a cyclist that are officially reported to the police with those not reported (user-sourced dataset). We show that reported and unreported cycling accidents have similar spatial patterns and exhibit similar locational tendencies with respect to specific infrastructures and facilities. We illustrate the importance of defining a study area in the interpretation of the (cross) K-function results and show that cycling accidents are more likely to be unreported in areas where a small speed difference between slow and fast modes is imposed (traffic-calming areas). Because safety measures influence both accident rate and reporting rate, evaluation of their effect on cycling accidents requires careful spatial analysis.