Cycle safety:a holistic perspective

Roger Geffen

Campaigns and Policy Director

CTC, the national cyclists’ organisation

How to deliverMore and Safer Cycling

About CTC

• CTC the national cycling charity– c70,000 members, founded 1878– Cycling activities, membership services (legal,

insurance, magazine)– Cycling development e.g. cycle training – Campaigning nationally and locally

Health Benefits

• Cycling in mid-adulthood gives you a level of fitness equivalent to being 10 years younger…

…and a life expectancy 2 years above the average

Cycle use and obesity in Europecirca 2002 (years vary)

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A relationship between cycle use and obesity?

Cycling is healthy not dangerous

It is dangerous NOT to cycle!

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Deaths in Britain 2003• You are less likely to be killed in a mile of cycling than mile of walking

• Health benefits far outweigh risks, by c20:1

• Those who do NOT cycle to work have a 39% higher mortality rate than those who do (Copenhagen heart study)

Health v safety?• Cyclists have a very low

rate of involvement in injuries to others.

• High cycle use and good cycle safety are linked: the “Safety in Numbers” effect (www.ctc.org.uk/safety-in-numbers).

• e.g. London since 2000:– Cycle use up 150%, serious

and fatal injuries down 18%– Many other examples from

UK and Europe

Cars Vans / M’cycles Buses / Peds Cycles Lorries Coaches

Fatalities involving different road users: who gets killed?

Safety in numbers: European comparison

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Safety in numbers:Why does it happen? What does it mean?

Three possible explanations:1. Drivers become more aware of cyclists and better at

understanding / anticipating them.2. A greater proportion of drivers will themselves be cyclists,

improving their understanding.3. Increased political will to improve cycling conditions.

Implications:• More cycle use and better cycle safety can, and should, go

hand in hand. But action is needed to ensure they do.• Tackle actual and perceived risks to cycling: hostile

roads/junctions, speeds, bad driving, lorries.• Provide ‘Bikeability’ national standard cycle training for

people of all ages, backgrounds, abilities.• Measure actual cycle safety (i.e. per unit of cycle use, not

just cyclist casualties) and perceptions of safety.

www.ctc.org.uk/safetyinnumbers

More and safer cycling:Key points

• Cycling is good for our own health, and that of our communities and the environment

• Cycling gets safer the more cyclists there are

• So “more” AND “safer” cycling can and should go hand in hand: complementary not contradictory aims

• Tackle the fears which deter people from cycling− Speed, irresponsible driving, hostile roads and junctions, lorries

• Set targets and indicators which encourage this

1. Traffic speeds

• Welcome positive noises on 20mph, but Government needs to “speed up on slowing down” in both urban and rural areas

• Benefits of 20mph– 90% fewer KSI in Hull’s 20mph

zones, 56% decrease in collisions (1994 – 2001)

• Benefits health, road safety for all, quality of life, economy

• Popular!- 75% support 20mph limits,

incl 72% of drivers

2. Irresponsible driving

• Better training and testing• Clear focussed driver awareness campaigns

– Close overtaking– Looking before turning at junctions– Car doors

….LINKED TO• Increased enforcement activity (and hence

police resourcing)• Fundamental review of policing, prosecutions

and sentencing needed

CTC’s Road Justice campaign aims to tackle bad driving and promote responsible road use

www.roadjustice.org.uk

3. Hostile roads and junctions

• Set new design standards based on EU best practice (incl. innovations currently being trialled / proposed reg changes)

• Focus on major junctions / one-way systems• Ensure network coherence and continuity.• Cycle-proofing: audit process to ensure cycle-

friendliness is designed in at outset• Professional training / awareness

4. Dangerous vehicles

• HGVs: account for 20-25% of fatalities in GB, 53% in London (2001-5), 6 out of 8 fatalities in London so far in 2013.

• Solutions relate to vehicles, driver training and awareness, fleet management and (above all) demand management / access restrictions.

• Motorcycles also have a disproportionately high involvement rate in both pedestrian and cyclist casualties, especially serious and fatal injuries

5. Positive promotion:cycle training & other “smarter choices” measures

• Cycle training and other targeted opportunities to cycle: continue / extend availability incl for adults – focus on workplaces, women, health patients, minority / disadvantaged groups

• Cross-departmental/organisational collaboration: importance of involving depts for / partners from health, education & business

• Positive promotion and activities (e.g. TfL’s ‘Catch up with the bicycle’ campaign, Sky Rides)

• Avoid scaring people e.g. with shock-tactics “road safety” campaigns!

6. Measuring success• Set rate-based targets – e.g. the national target to halve the risk of

ped and cycle KSI per 100,000 miles travelled – to encourage “more” as well as “safer” cycling

• “Perception-based” indicators - could be monitored as an add-on to survey on perceptions of PT safety, would avoid data problems at local level, and would end tendency to scare people off cycling!

• This will encourage action to tackle the fears which deter people from cycling: speed, irresponsible driving, hostile roads and junctions, dangerous vehicles (especially lorries).

• Fewer deterrents => more cycling => safer cycling

Cycletopia

• A visualisation of a model cycling town, based on what is already happening in the UK.

• Includes infrastructure, promotion, integration and leadership

• You don’t need to dream of the Netherlands, it can be done here too!

www.ctc.org.uk/cycletopia

N.B. For CTC’s campaigns briefings (e.g. on health, safety, infrastructure, local transport and many others) see

www.ctc.org.uk/campaignsbriefings

Cycle safety:a holistic perspective

Roger Geffen

Campaigns and Policy Director

CTC, the national cyclists’ organisation

How to deliverMore and Safer Cycling