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The importance of cycling is growing, also in science: At the Bergische Universität in Wuppertal, Heather Kaths has been appointed professor for "Planning tools for future cycling".
What exactly is she researching?
And what does that mean for cycling in the future?
A call to the native Canadian who currently still lives in Munich and wants to move to Wuppertal this year.
WORLD:
You are from Calgary, Canada.
Flat area, right?
Heather Kaths:
Yeah, pretty flat.
However, it is only an hour to the Rocky Mountains.
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WORLD:
Then you will probably only smile at the hills of the Bergisches Land.
Kaths:
Wuppertal is something completely different from Calgary.
That can only be compared to San Francisco.
(She laughs.)
WORLD:
I beg your pardon?
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Kaths:
I moved from Calgary to Munich ten years ago.
When I was preparing for the interviews in Wuppertal, I naturally wanted to know more about Wuppertal.
Googling came out that the city was the San Francisco of Germany.
WORLD:
You will be happy to hear that in Wuppertal.
At the university there you are now the first woman professor for cycling in North Rhine-Westphalia.
How does it feel to be the first?
Kaths:
I'm happy about it.
It is a honor!
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WORLD:
How did you get into your field of work?
Kaths:
I did a bachelor's degree in civil engineering in Calgary with a focus on transportation.
In Canada, the bicycle did not play a major role as a means of transport back then.
During an exchange semester in Stuttgart, I became aware of the topic of cycling and learned that there is a master’s degree in Munich on this.
Well, and then I stuck with it.
I wrote my dissertation on the behavior of cyclists in an urban context.
WORLD:
How do you behave?
Kaths:
For the dissertation, I installed cameras at various locations in Munich - so that no faces could be recognized, of course - and collected data.
Among other things, it came out that they almost always turn right on red.
Some drive carefully, others speed or are traveling against the direction of travel.
WORLD:
Do you behave anarchically?
Kaths:
Yes.
Their behavior is nowhere near as predictable as that of motorists.
WORLD:
Is that good or rather dangerous?
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Kaths: There
is a lot of discussion.
Some say it's good that cycling is so flexible.
Others complain that cyclists do what they want.
Should you punish cyclists who break the rules more severely?
Issue more parking tickets?
All of this is highly controversial.
WORLD:
When you were appointed professor, you said: “It is time for cycling research to catch up with quantitative, experimentally based findings on motorized traffic.” What exactly do you mean by that?
Kaths:
For a long time, when it comes to modeling human behavior in traffic, cycling - at least in Germany - hardly played a role for a long time.
Models related either to pedestrians or to motorized traffic were used.
It's different in the Netherlands or Denmark.
They began researching cycling there in the 1960s and finding out what is good and what is not.
In Germany, the influence of the auto industry is very great, and that has influenced the research landscape.
Car traffic has been intensively researched, but bicycle traffic has not.
It is now becoming apparent that the topic has been wrongly neglected for a long time.
WORLD:
How do you go about your work?
Kaths:
The point is to provide planning tools for cycling. Let's say you want to improve the situation for cyclists in Wuppertal. Then you need to ask yourself the following questions: Where should I start? Where can I even build bike paths? If possible in such a way that you don't have to drive over hills and mountains? This is known as network planning. Or as a macroscopic view. Once you've checked that off, the next thing you need to ask yourself is: How do I lay out the bike path? How wide do you want it to be? On both sides of the street or just one? How do you regulate the situations in front of traffic lights? That is the microscopic view. In order to be able to make the right decisions here, you have to simulate the behavior of the cyclists beforehand. And it is precisely these traffic simulation tools that we develop.
WORLD: That
hasn't existed before?
Kaths:
They already existed, but - as I said - with a strong focus on motorized traffic.
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WORLD:
Does that mean that the cycle paths were laid out more or less by chance?
Kaths:
Not necessarily. There are cities in Germany with a very good network of cycle paths. But also others, where one could improve a lot. People in Germany like to drive. This has to do with habits, but it can also be due to a lack of infrastructure. This is exactly what we want to investigate: which modes of transport do people choose and why? What choices do they make? How do you get there? How do they interact with other road users? How do they behave at traffic junctions? We'll watch, watch, watch. I want to buy bicycles that measure acceleration and that are equipped with cameras. We then make these bikes available to people and then we can see exactly how they move through the city.
WORLD:
So the first thing is to collect as much data as possible?
Kaths:
That's right.
Another goal: I would like to define locations in Wuppertal where counting is carried out: the number of cyclists and the number of road users overall - all of this over a long period of time.
WORLD:
As it is said, you will cooperate with the Netherlands and Denmark - with two countries that are considered exemplary when it comes to dealing with bicycle traffic.
Does that mean that one day we can expect paradisiacal conditions here - at least in terms of cycling research?
Kaths:
Hope is always there.
Otherwise I would have a difficult job.
The wheel is definitely important.
At the same time, it is always a question of political will.
What do you want to promote?
One problem is that there isn't enough money to support bicycle research.
Many cities and associations are interested in it, but not the financial means.
After all, money is coming from the federal government - the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure is funding cycling professorships at seven German universities.
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WORLD:
Do you ride your bike a lot yourself?
Kaths:
Yes.
I have four bikes: a racing bike, a mountain bike and two city bikes.
WORLD:
With or without an electric motor?
Kaths:
I haven't used an e-bike before.
I cycle to work every day.
From Munich I cycled twice across the Alps to Italy.
WORLD:
When is the first bike tour through the Bergisches Land coming up?
Kaths:
Hopefully in the summer, together with my husband.
We now have a little baby.
That stays with grandma.
Heather Kaths, 35, studied civil engineering at the Canadian University of Calgary and received her master's degree from the Technical University of Munich, where she received her doctorate in 2017. She received an award from the Bavarian Ministry of Science for her dissertation. She has been an endowed professor in Wuppertal since April of this year.