Background The SDG goal of decarbonization of the cities requires the shift of road users from private vehicles to public transport and non-motorized transport. The use of non-motorized transportation modes like bicycles for short urban trips can be encouraged by tackling the safety concern of the riders. The outcomes from the studies performed in developed countries cannot be directly applied in India as it has non-lane base movement of heterogeneous traffic. Hence, it is required to understand the effect of various infrastructural and traffic characteristics on the safety of bicycle riders. The study made an effort to observe the cluster of bicycle fatalities in Delhi, India, and to understand various traffic and infrastructural factors that cause these fatalities.

Methods DBSCAN and OPTICS clustering techniques are used to obtain the areas prone to bicycle fatalities in Delhi and to understand the change in formation of fatality-clusters before and after 2010 when the major infrastructural changes happened due to Commonwealth Games. The clustering technique also helped in deciding the locations to perform case-control studies to explore factors causing bicycle fatalities.

Result and Conclusion Effect of major infrastructural changes on bicycle safety has been observed and analyzed. By case-control study, the effect of the presence of facilities (bus stops, etc.), geometric design of the road, and surrounding land-use patterns, on bicycle safety were observed. The outcomes will help the urban planners and policymakers to adopt measures to encourage the potential riders to choose bicycle and hence contributes towards the decarbonization of urban cities.