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TRL research on UK cycle safety issues
Published by Matt Polaine | Filed under Bicycle, Cycling, Cycling infrastructure
credit: keith bingham, cycling weekly
Can we spare the time for another study? The Department for Transport has commissioned the Transport Research Laboratory ITRL) to carry out a study into
“road user safety issues in relation to cycling”.
Notwithstanding the TRL’s reputation for getting to the nitty gritty, safety organisations have for decades been telling the government precisely about the dangers facing cycLists. Here they are: speeding drivers; ‘blind’ drivers — those who claim they didn’t see the cyclist; tired drivers; couldn’t care less drivers.
The cure? The creation of a dedicated police transport division to help concentrate minds, and perhaps even pull the blighters over. But no, we’re to get a study. It’s Long overdue, of course, and won’t be complete until 2010 by which time, at the going rate, another 300 cyclists will have been wiped out and 5,000 seriously injured.
The study will also corne as cold comfort to the families and friends of cyclists killed on the roads.
But it is a welcome study, nonetheless, and the first in-depth study to specifically examine the dangers, both perceived and real, of how cyclists must co-exist with heavy, fast-moving traffic.
Meanwhile, another family is struck by tragedy. Last week Ratae RC’s veteran star Dave Grundy was killed on Leicestershire roads.
The Department for Transport says that in 2007 alone, 136 pedal cyclists were killed and 2,428 reported as seriously injured on Britain’s roads. The number of cyclists killed or seriously injured has steadily increased in recent years, with the figure for 2007 being 11 per cent higher than for 2004.
2 Responses to “TRL research on UK cycle safety issues”
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December 3rd, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Also note that the discrepancy between A&E cycle admissions and police reports have been estimated to be as far off as 50%.
Of those attending A&E, only those with bad cuts and bruises attend, often hoping to make a private claim against the driver.
The number of cases of threatening behaviour and slight collisions with drivers is estimated to be well over 200% that of A&E admissions. This puts cycle/driver ‘combat’ cases at nearly 10,000 cases a year.
Just 27 cases of aggression towards a cyclist a day across the UK? I would have thought it was much higher than that. I reckon Cambridge alone has this many cases a day…
December 20th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Actually I think this is quite a positive thing. I believe it came out as a result of the aftermath of the Highway Code stuff, when the DfT agreed that they really needed some proper research about the real factors relating to cycle safety - including things like cycle lane widths and pavement provision - rather than helmets and the silly idea that people should use facilities where available.
I think having the TRL do such research is a good sign.