Safety

This study set out to answer an interesting question. Why is it that converting intersections into roundabouts doesn’t make them safer for cyclists? Roundabouts are safer than intersections for motor vehicles, so why not for cyclists? Most accidents involve a cyclist already circulating the roundabout and a car entering or exiting, but the exact causes were […]

Researchers from the City of Edmonton Transportation Planning Branch have tackled the very serious question of which factors contribute to severe bicycle-motor vehicle collisions. The study considered 571 collisions that occurred between 2006 and 2009. The data was obtained from police reports. 424 of the studied collisions happened at intersections with the remaining 147 taking place midblock. Findings […]

Thousands of cyclists die in road accidents every year. Research by Schepers et al showed that the majority of these deaths, in the EU at least, were the result of collisions between vehicles and bicycles, mostly at unsignalised intersections. Prati et al have shown that in such cases the driver’s response plays a critical role […]

The BicycleSafe website is dedicated to teaching cyclists how not to get hit by cars. It lists ten of the most common types of accidents and for each it one it gives tips on how to avoid it. There is also lots of general advice. Key tips might seem obvious but it’s well worth going through […]

C40 calls its-self a network of the world’s megacities committed to addressing climate change. Also referred to as the Cities Climate Leadership Group it now represents 90 of the world’s largest cities, home to over 650 million people and making up one-quarter of the global economy. The group supports collaboration and knowledge sharing between the cities to further […]

A study carried out by Bath and Brunel Universities looked at how much space drivers give when overtaking. The researchers wanted to see if the clothing cyclists wear will affect drivers’ behavior. Different clothing was chosen to indicate different levels of experience. The extreme of inexperience was indicated by a cyclist wearing an outfit including a high visibility vest […]

A study carried out in the Netherlands has compared the likelihood of crashes resulting in emergency treatment for eBike and regular bike riders. A survey carried out in emergency departments were used to gather data for the case group while a survey drawn from the population acted as the control group. The results were controlled […]

This study had the objective of measuring the ability of a bicycle safety education curriculum to “reduce the number of injuries and fatalities”. It involved testing middle school kids before and after they were given a bike safety course to determine how much their knowledge had increased. I have some issues with the methodology. It seems to […]

This study carried out telephone interviews with cyclists in Tasmania, Australia, to understand how frequently they had accidents. It found an overall accident rate of 1.6 major accidents and 3.7 minor accidents per 100,000 km ridden. Major accidents were defined as those requiring medical attention or resulting in a day or more off work. Minor […]

Bike lights should make the bicycle visible to other road users without causing glare and also illuminate the ground. Standards such as the European K-mark require that the first two conditions are met but do not require a very high standard of ground illumination. In the K-mark standard illuminance is measured at a distance of 10m […]