Rather than asking cyclists how they behave, a team at the Universidad de Chile's Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism watched them. As part of a Fondecyt project on cycling conflicts with other transport modes, researchers Rodrigo Mora, Tomás Cox and Geraldine Herrmann placed video cameras at twelve high-traffic points on avenues in Providencia and central Santiago, including Los Leones, Ricardo Lyon, Eliodoro Yáñez and Pedro de Valdivia, recording weekday peak hours over four months and capturing about 9,747 cyclists.
The numbers make the infrastructure case bluntly. Where a bike lane exists, 93.5 per cent of cyclists use it. Where none does, 43.4 per cent retreat to the pavement, bringing them into direct conflict with pedestrians, while the rest take their chances in traffic. Women and cyclists travelling against the flow of cars were most likely to ride on the pavement, and cobblestone streets pushed riders off the roadway too, suggesting comfort and perceived safety, not etiquette, drive the behaviour.
The researchers translate the findings into three recommendations: prioritise continuous, protected lanes and avoid jolting surfaces; standardise lane widths and materials to eliminate network gaps; and introduce traffic calming in residential and commercial zones. The context gives the work urgency, with bicycles accounting for 7.8 per cent of Santiago trips in 2024, up from 4 per cent in the 2012 origin-destination survey, meaning every unresolved design flaw now multiplies across a far larger riding population.