How to make more cycling good for road safety?

Wegman, Fred; Zhang, Fan; Dijkstra, A

doi:10.1016/j.aap.2010.11.010

Cited by 216 publications

(125 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

109

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The interventions to improve cyclist safety resulting from this research should include reduced speed limits (Bunn et al, 2003), off-road paths along fast roads (Vandenbulcke et al, 2014) and better enforcement of road regulations (Wegman et al, 2012). More radical approaches include steps to normalise cycling, restrict car use and the modification of road markings to encourage safer driving (Shackel and Parkin, 2014).…”

Section: When Are Bicycle Crashes Most Likely?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Who, where, when: the demographic and geographic distribution of bicycle crashes in West Yorkshire

Lovelace

Roberts

Kellar

2016

Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviou

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Factors associated with cycle safety, including international differences in injury and mortality rates, protective equipment and bicycle training, have been subject to increasing academic interest. Environmental variables associated with cycle safety have also been scrutinised, but few studies have focussed on geographical factors at the local level. This paper addresses this research gap by analysing a geo-referenced dataset of road traffic incidents, taken from the UK's STATS19 dataset (2005 -2012). We investigate incidents involving cyclists within West Yorkshire. This is an interesting case study area as it has an historically low cycling rate but very ambitions cycling plans following investment from the Department of Transport. West Yorkshire is found to be an unusually risky area for cyclists, with an estimated 53 deaths and 1372 serious injuries per billion kilometres cycled, based on census commuting statistics. This is roughly double the national average. This riskiness varies spatially and temporally, broadly in line with expectations from the previous literature. An unexpected result was that cycling seems to be disproportionately risky for young people in West Yorkshire compared with young people nationally. The case study raises the issue of potential negative health impacts of promoting cycling amongst vulnerable groups in dangerous areas. We conclude by highlighting opportunities for increasing cycling uptake via measures designed primarily to improve safety. The analysis underlying this research is reproducible, based on code stored at github.com/Robinlovelace/bikeR.

show abstract

Section: When Are Bicycle Crashes Most Likely?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Who, where, when: the demographic and geographic distribution of bicycle crashes in West Yorkshire

Lovelace

Roberts

Kellar

2016

Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviou

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There are profound equity issues within these statistics, which reflect the disproportionate burden of avoidable morbidity and mortality from MVC (Nantulya and Reich, 2003). Despite the high variability between different regions, MVC rates remain highest for vulnerable road users including motorbike commuters and active travel commuters (pedestrians and cyclists), followed by public transport and car commuters (Zegeer and Bushell 2012, Steinbach et al 2013, Wegman et al 2012. Half of the world s road traffic deaths occur amongst motorcyclists, pedestrians and cyclists, with 31% of deaths amongst car occupants (World Health…”

Section: Motor Vehicle Crashesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The health impacts of traffic-related exposures in urban areas: Understanding real effects, underlying driving forces and co-producing future directions

Khreis¹,

Warsow²,

Verlinghieri³

et al. 2016

Journal of Transport & Health

145

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The world is currently witnessing its largest surge of urban growth in human history; a trend that draws attention to the need to understand and address health impacts of urban living. Whilst transport is instrumental in this urbanisation wave, it also has significant positive and negative impacts on population health, which are disproportionately distributed.In this paper, we bring together expertise in transport engineering, transport and urban planning, research and strategic management, epidemiology and health impact assessment in an exercise to scope and discuss the health impacts of transport in urban areas. Adopting a cross-disciplinary, coproduction approach, we explore the key driving forces behind the current state of urban mobility and outline recommendations for practices that could facilitate positioning health at the core of transport design, planning and policy.Current knowledge on the health-related impacts of urban transport shows that motor vehicle traffic is causing significant premature mortality and morbidity through motor vehicle crashes, physical inactivity and traffic-related environmental exposures including increases in air pollution, noise and temperature levels, as well as reductions in green space. Trends of rapid and car-centred urbanisation, mass motorisation and a tendency of policy to favour car mobility and undervalue health in the transport and development agenda has both led to, and exacerbated the negative health impacts of the transport systems. Simultaneously, we also argue that the benefits of new transport schemes on the economy are emphasised whilst the range and severity of identified health impacts associated with transport are often downplayed. We conclude the paper by outlining stakeholders recommendations for the adoption of a cross-disciplinary co-production approach that takes a health-aware perspective and has the potential to promote a paradigm shift in transport practices.

show abstract

“…Cycling is growing but because the data on this are not precise it is not possible to say if collision and injury rates are declining. There is a developing literature on "safety in numbers" which tries to identify a mechanism that might explain declining accident rates as traffic grows (Johanssen, 2003;Elvik, 2009;Wegman, 2012 andITF, 2013). It will be useful to begin such analysis in Ireland.…”

Section: Can Safety and Cycling Policy Converge?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The safety challenge of increased cycling

Short

Caulfield

2014

Transport Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many countries have recently set out policy frameworks to support the growth of cycling. However, increased cycling can mean more collisions, injuries and even fatalities. This paper discusses the role of safety in cycling policy in the particular case of Ireland, which is one of the countries that has a government-endorsed policy to increase cycling. It examines available information on cycling, including police-reported accident data over the last fifteen years and more recent hospital accident data. Comparisons are made for injuries between the two sources and data matching and capture-recapture methods used to estimate injuries. The deficiencies in data are analysed and suggestions for improvements made. It is argued that gaps in available data have led to accident risks being poorly understood. The paper discusses how a convergence in cycling and safety policy can be achieved and suggests additional measures including a cycling safety target, increased communication on cycling safety, lower urban speeds and compulsory wearing of helmets for children. Background: Road Safety and Cycling in Ireland Road safetyIreland has had a highly successful decade in reducing road traffic fatalities and has jumped up the international safety league tables (International Transport Forum( IRTAD), 2011). Not previously known as a country with a particularly good road safety record, the achievements, especially in the latter half of the past decade have attracted a lot of attention from international bodies and from countries keen to understand the reasons for the improvements. With a fatality rate of less than 50 per million people, Ireland, in 2010, joined the elite group of around ten countries achieving this level (IRTAD, 2011). In terms of fatalities per vehicle kilometre, arguably a more correct measure, Ireland was rated fourth behind Iceland, Sweden and Great Britain, recording fewer than 5 deaths per billion vehicle kilometres. Cyclist fatalities have also fallen significantly and at 5 in 2010 were among the lowest (absolutely and per capita) in the OECD (IRTAD, 2011). CyclingBetween 1986 and 2002, cycling in Ireland declined dramatically as can be seen from Table 1. The number of people cycling to work almost halved and, because the number at work grew, the modal share by bike fell from 5.6% to below 2% (CSO 2011(a)). The decline in cycling to school or college was even more striking. Between 1986 and 2006, the number of children between 5 and 12 years of age cycling to school fell by 83%. The number of 13-18 year olds cycling to school fell even more, by 85% and the number of girls of this age cycling to school *Manuscript (without author's information) Click here to view linked References 2 fell by 98%. In 2011, there were as many people in this age group driving a car to school or college as there were cycling. (CSO, 2011 (a)).The decline halted between 2002 and 2006 and cycling started to grow again. Supported by policy, including a successful scheme to subsidise bicycle purchase through tax-free loans (...

show abstract

How to make more cycling good for road safety?

Cited by 216 publications

References 11 publications

Who, where, when: the demographic and geographic distribution of bicycle crashes in West Yorkshire

Who, where, when: the demographic and geographic distribution of bicycle crashes in West Yorkshire

The health impacts of traffic-related exposures in urban areas: Understanding real effects, underlying driving forces and co-producing future directions

The safety challenge of increased cycling

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About