Cycling - you've never been so likely to survive.....

[Mrke]

How safe is cycling? - LINK

 

[JohnCade]

How do the fatality numbers relate to the numbers cycling in each decade though? At their peak in the thirties the number of cyclists was huge compared to now.

 

[Mrke]

Hi John,

extract from the link
"Pedal cycle fatalities are falling at a time when cycle traffic is rising - road traffic estimates put cycle traffic in 2013 around 13% higher than the average over 2005-09, with deaths 16% lower."

 

[flecc]

How do the fatality numbers relate to the numbers cycling in each decade though? At their peak in the thirties the number of cyclists was huge compared to now.

They are definitely related. Just look to the way the decline stopped in the 1970s and '80s when first the Raleigh Chopper enjoyed a huge surge in child cycling and then the mountain bike did the same for adult cycling.

More cycling recently has made it proportionally a little safer, but the numbers cycling is a dominant factor.
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[Geebee]

But don't forget the main killer, the car was a lot less common in the 30's and 40's.
Plus I would think cars would be at there highest numbers currently.
The reverse of the graph.

 

[flecc]

But don't forget the main killer, the car was a lot less common in the 30's and 40's.
Plus I would think cars would be at there highest numbers currently.
The reverse of the graph.

But that reverse can be inverted. There were some one million cars in Britain in the early to mid 1930s, but they were lethal, over 6000 people a year being killed on the roads in this country.

Now there are some 32 million cars, but road deaths overall are as low as 1700 a year. With cars being by far the largest group of vehicles on our roads, we can safely assume they and their drivers are well over 100 times safer than in the 1930s.

That's not surprising, anyone wanting to drive in the early 1930s only had to pop into a post office to buy a full licence, there was no driving test.
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[bigclick]

interesting .. there seems to be a relative spike in accidents just before the start of each new decade from the late 40s on (although 1980 not so much). Christmas Presents?

 

[JohnCade]

Seems death rates are rising for all road users including cyclists.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/06/road-deaths-serious-injuries-rise-experts-cuts-blame

Chris Boardman, policy adviser for British Cycling, said: “A 10% increase in the number of cyclists killed or seriously injured is a stat that should act as a wake-up call to the Department for Transport instead of simply being explained by the milder weather we’ve seen in the last year. It’s great that more people are choosing cycling as a means of transport but the reality of Britain’s roads will be putting millions more off. We need to see the government investing at least £10 per head on putting this right.”

 

[flecc]

interesting .. there seems to be a relative spike in accidents just before the start of each new decade from the late 40s on (although 1980 not so much). Christmas Presents?

The start of the 1950s saw the first realisations of recovery from the war, the 1960s the start of that boom decade, and the start of the 1970s the summation of that boom. But 1980 introduced the Thatcher recession, so the peak came in the mid 1980s instead as recovery of employment took hold.

So those peaks are economic, the affluence for buying vehicles.
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[bigclick]

So Christmas presents then

 

[flecc]

So Christmas presents then

More likely March and August, that's the months when most buy for the new registrations.
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