Cycling in Dublin TCD Research: Even Cyclists Say It's Dangerous

uvox

Interesting stuff: http://www.tcd.ie/Communications/news/pressreleases/pressRelease.php?headerID=2614&vs_date=2012-07-30

Dangerous perception and some nice recommendations. But rule-breaking? Nice to see research done though...

ThisRegard

But they don't conclude that experienced cyclists say cycling in Dublin is dangerous, they say it's perceived as being dangerous, as evidenced by many threads on boards alone ?

hardCopy

Two interesting quotes from the release, I haven't read the full study:

“The use of safety accessories is not necessarily associated with improved safety experience, since the use of these accessories does not help them to overcome the fear of potentially unsafe situations. Mandatory usage of these accessories may be of little or no benefit to the improvement of the perceived safety”, adds Dr Vikram Pakrashi, UCC and a co-author of the research.

“To make cycling an intrinsic part of Irish mobility, it may be beneficial to introduce cycling education at the primary school level, increase the awareness amongst drivers through safety initiatives and provide improved infrastructure to attract new cyclists to the network. Incentives like ‘Bike to Work’ scheme, cycle maintenance workshops and community initiatives all contribute to the increase in the regularity and number of the cyclists, which in turn leads to an improved safety experience,” concluded Dr Ghosh.

The fact that 87.5% of cyclists admit to regularly breaking the rules of the road is another stick for people to beat cyclists with, better cyclist education and nagging our friends and colleagues who cycle may help. Removing the law on mandatory use of cycle lanes may help too but I suspect much of the law breaking in the study refers to breaking lights, cycling the wrong way and cycling on footpaths.

not even wrong

hardCopy wrote: »

The fact that 87.5% of cyclists admit to regularly breaking the rules of the road is another stick for people to beat cyclists with, better cyclist education and nagging our friends and colleagues who cycle may help. Removing the law on mandatory use of cycle lanes may help too but I suspect much of the law breaking in the study refers to breaking lights, cycling the wrong way and cycling on footpaths.

If you asked motorists how many of them had ever broken the speed limit/used their mobile while driving/parked illegally I wonder what percentage you would get.


Also note that the sentence is not "87.5% of cyclists admit to regularly breaking the rules of the road", it's " the survey has revealed that 87.5% of the participants admit to breaking the rules of the road with regular, confident and experienced cyclists being less compliant."

Bunnyhopper

Irish Times article on this topic.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0730/breaking46.html

I wonder how much of the regular rule-breaking by experienced cyclists is people refusing to use mandatory but downright dangerous lanes (for example the ones that put you to the left of a left-turn-only lane even if you're going straight or turning right), or who roll past the stop line at ASL boxes that are often disregarded by motorists or are too short and so put you in the blindspot of HGVs. Less experienced cyclists might have a misplaced faith in the quality of the infrastructure.

Lusk Doyle

Driving is dangerous. I still drive. Cycling is dangerous. I still cycle. Skiing is dangerous. I still ski. Etc. Etc. Etc.

AltAccount

I'd love to know how they defined "cyclists" in the first place.

"Do you own a bike? "
"Yeah, I've got an old bike that used to belong to my dad in the shed, but I won't cycle it because drivers are maniacs"
"Excellent, fill out this survey "

opti0nal

not even wrong wrote: »

If you asked motorists how many of them had ever broken the speed limit/used their mobile while driving/parked illegally I wonder what percentage you would get.

78% of drivers break speed limits, so if you factored in illegal parking, amber light offences, illegal overtaking, not indicating and use of fog lights when it's not foggy, i'd say you get close to 100%

Cycling in Dublin is not dangerous, it's just hazardous and annoying.

Qualitymark

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2012/07/30/cycling-in-dublin-is-unsafe-say-dublin-cyclists/

The comments just go on and on, though, one more ignorant than the next.

Chips Lovell

Threads merged

Jawgap

I read the release and found the paper. Here's a link to a freely available version of it given at a conference..

http://www.itrn.ie/uploads/sesE3_ID136.pdf - it's not as data heavy of the article, but the essence of it is there.

I think TCD's communication office did an excellent job at picking out the bits that would grab the headlines.

The conclusion wasn't that cyclists see cycling as dangerous, what they found was that, relative to driving...

• "As the number of days people cycle each week increases that probability of describing cycling as safer than driving in Dublin also increases and the probability of describing it as less safe decreases."
• The probability of describing cycling in Dublin as safer than driving is larger for people who prefer to cycle on urban roads and on roads with no cycle facilities than for those who prefer not to.
  
• The probabilities of a cyclist, who does not wear bright coloured/hi-visibility clothing, describing cycling as safer than and as safe as driving in Dublin are both larger than for those who do.
  
• the probability of describing cycling as safer than or as safe as driving grows with age. Consequently, older people are more likely to deem the network as safer than the relatively younger population.
  

I think as a piece of work it raises some interesting issues, but I'd query some of their findings especially as the sampling seems to have been more of a trawl of cyclists, where a more structured approach might yield more robust results.

I'd also query some of their more absolute statements such as "Cycling surfaces are poorly maintained, often resulting in falls causing injury and damage to property." - no evidence is provided to back this questionable assertion up.

I like the bit about hi-viz - maybe the RSA could read, reflect and digest it then the shut up:D

As the OP said great to see this work being done and it looks like there is more to follow.

kerash

There is going to be an item on Newstalk after the break (ie now) about cyclists knowing the rules of the road - in relation to this survey.

ThisRegard

If it's as bad as Lunchtime on Newstalk usually approach this subject it's going to be pretty poor. edit: Is that it ? Did I miss loads or was it just a very small piece.

Meh, here it is, nonsense texts from listeners.

Jawgap

It's in the Irish Times today....

Perceived danger puts people off cycling in Dublin, survey finds

Personally I think the Communications Office in Trinity deserve a bit of a 'kicking' and the reporter from the paper of record should not be so lazy as to not bother reading the original study.

The original study presents a more nuanced view of things, whereas the Communications Office have gone for the cheap headline - more UCD than TCD in their approach;)

The reporter has just re-hashed the press release.