Guardian: Sharp rise in number of cyclists killed on roads

flickerx

"Jump in quarterly figures could be explained by a rush of inexperienced riders, according to cycling groups.

The number of cyclists killed or seriously hurt on Britain's roads rose sharply this spring, a phenomenon cycling campaigners warn could be caused in part by a rush of inexperienced riders taking to the streets, or even an increase in risky cycling behaviour such as red-light jumping.

Department for Transport figures released today show that 820 cyclists were killed or seriously injured in the three months to June this year, a 19% increase on the same period of 2008. More minor injuries rose 7% over the same period."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/nov/05/cycling-deaths-department-of-transport

Tails

True lies, damn lies and statistics!

It would be interesting to know how many more people are cycling now as compared to last year and has the % of cyclists hurt actually changed. But all in all more cyclists being killed is tragic, lets hope more guidelines are set up and enforced.

BryanL

It's about Britain. Road usage there is hardly comparable with Ireland?
Bryan

poochiem

makes sense, inexperienced cyclists getting on bikes make mistakes. I hadn't been on a bike in nearly twenty years and as I don't drive I have to admit finding the junctions a problem for the first week at least.

Alanstrainor

I can definitely see how inexperience can be a killer on the road. I remember when i was working, one of the girls in the building decided to start cycling, she happened to cycle the same direction as myself. And it was shocking some of the things she would do, stopping on the inside of buses/Trucks, swerving all over the road, getting terrified to the extent that she stopped in the middle of the road when cars got in anyway "close". Dangerous stuff.

tomasrojo

Cycling campaigners stress that such quarterly figures can become skewed by variations in accident reporting, particularly given the relatively small overall numbers involved, and that annual figures are a better guide. For the 12 months to June there was a far smaller 4% increase in cycling deaths and serious injuries as against the equivalent figure a year before, and the total remains almost 30% down on the 1994-98 average.

They could have led with that.

ednwireland

how does it compare with the % increase in cyclists ?

cant be arsed reading it

tomasrojo

Without more details, it looks quite like "regression to the mean".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regression_toward_the_mean

In statistics, regression toward the mean refers to the phenomenon that a variable that is extreme on its first measurement will tend to be closer to the centre of the distribution on a later measurement. To avoid making wrong inferences, the possibility of regression toward the mean must be considered when designing experiments and interpreting experimental, survey, and other empirical data in the physical, life, behavioral and social sciences.

You can't come to any satisfactory conclusions on short-term results with very small numbers. This is flimsy material for an entire article.

AMontague

In Dublin the number of serious accidents involving cyclists has declined by about 75% in the last 10 years from about 250 accidents to about 80 accidents. The numbers cycling has increased over those 10 years. There has also been a similar reduction in the number of serious accidents to pedestrians.

One of the best ways to improve safety is to encourage more people to cycle. In Lyons, there was an 88% increase in the number of trips by bike in the year after the introduction of their free bike scheme - but there was only a 6% increase in injuries to cyclists.

seamus

tomasrojo wrote: »

You can't come to any satisfactory conclusions on short-term results with very small numbers. This is flimsy material for an entire article.

The fact that there's been an appreciable rise in motorcyclist injuries/deaths is also relevant. Perhaps other motorists are more stressed and in more of a hurry and therefore making more mistakes?