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Road cycling safety scoring based on geospatial analysis, computer vision and machine learning

DOI:10.1007/s11042-022-13552-1
Authors:
Jelle De Bock at Ghent University
Jelle De Bock
Steven Verstockt at Ghent University
Steven Verstockt
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Abstract and Figures

Road cycling is a cycling discipline in which riders ride on public roads. Traffic calming measures are made to make public roads safer for everyday usage for all its users. However, these measures are not always yielding a safer cycling racecourse. In this paper we present a methodology that inspects the safety of roads tailored to road bicycle racing. The automated approach uses computer vision and geospatial analysis to give an indicative racecourse safety score based on collected, calculated and processed multimodal data. The current version of our workflow uses OpenStreetMap (OSM), turn detection and stage type / bunch sprint classification for the geospatial analysis and uses road segmentation and an extensible object detector that is currently trained to detect road cracks and imperfections for visual analysis. These features are used to create a mechanism that penalizes dangerous elements on the route based on the remaining distance and the generated penalties with its relative importance factors. This results in a comprehensive safety score along with a detailed breakdown of the most concerning passages on the course which can be used by race organizers and officials to help them in the iterative process to create an engaging, yet safe course for the riders.
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1207: INNOVATIONS IN MULTIMEDIA INFORMATION PROCESS-
ING & RETRIEVAL
Road cycling safety scoring based on geospatial
analysis, computer vision and machine learning
Jelle De Bock
1
&Steven Verstockt
1
Received: 27 January 2021 /Revised: 11 March 2022 /Accepted: 14 July 2022
#The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022
Abstract
Road cycling is a cycling discipline in which riders ride on public roads. Traffic calming
measures are made to make public roads safer for everyday usage for all its users.
However, these measures are not always yielding a safer cycling racecourse. In this
paper we present a methodology that inspects the safety of roads tailored to road bicycle
racing. The automated approach uses computer vision and geospatial analysis to give an
indicative racecourse safety score based on collected, calculated and processed multi-
modal data. The current version of our workflow uses OpenStreetMap (OSM), turn
detection and stage type / bunch sprint classification for the geospatial analysis and uses
road segmentation and an extensible object detector that is currently trained to detect road
cracks and imperfections for visual analysis. These features are used to create a mecha-
nism that penalizes dangerous elements on the route based on the remaining distance and
the generated penalties with its relative importance factors. This results in a comprehen-
sive safety score along with a detailed breakdown of the most concerning passages on the
course which can be used by race organizers and officials to help them in the iterative
process to create an engaging, yet safe course for the riders.
Keywords Machine learning .Computer vision .Data analysis .Geospatial analysis .Sports data
science
1 Introduction
Road cycling is an endurance sport in which athletes ride their bicycles on courses that mainly
contain public roads. The number of vehicles using these public roads is slowly increasing
Multimedia Tools and Applications
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-022-13552-1
*Jelle De Bock
jelle.debock@ugent.be
Steven Verstockt
steven.verstockt@ugent.be
1
IDLab, Ghent University, Technologiepark-Zwijnaarde 122, 9052 Ghent, Belgium
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
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