Perceived risk whilst cycling ( A Survey )

[Jambate]

Hi folks,

I was informed by Graham that it is OK to post this survey ( having verified my academic email address ).

I am conducting research for a university project, and I am trying to find out when people find cycle scary - or in fancy university speak I am 'investigating perceived risk whilst cycling'.

I have put together a short questionnaire to get an idea of the big picture stuff which can be found below.

I would also like to dig a little deeper into this issue, and ask some more in-depth questions over email. If you would be happy to take part in this, there is an space to leave your email at the end of the questionnaire.

Here is the link to the questionnaire: https://goo.gl/forms/SGP3THtc6Vu4MsFl2

Thanks

[Cyril Haearn]

Started answering the questions, could not complete
The choices offered are
Slight risk
No risk

I often feel seriously at risk from drivers of motor vehicles

Could the survey be upgraded? Or have I missed something?
..
"Perceived" risk is one thing, what are the other types of risk?

[Samuel D]

The choices offered are
Slight risk
No risk

Scroll over to the right for the other choices.

[Jambate]

Hi Cyril Haearn, as Samuel D says the list should go all the way up to Extreme Risk (!),

If you still can't get it to cooperate, none of the questions are compulsory so just skip that one.

Also, thanks for giving it a look, every response helps!

[Mick F]

Filled it in.
Boring answers I'm afraid.
No perceived risk at all, except from pedestrians, and that's only slight.
Only near misses I've ever had were peds not looking and stepping out in front of me.

[gaz]

As per usual I have to shoe-horn my answers to fit the questions as best I can by trying to guess at the intention.

"How often do you cycle?" - Does a morning and evening commute count as cycling once or twice a day?

"Do any other road users consistently make you feel at risk whilst cycling?" - There are a number of problems with the answers to that one.

Firstly adverse road conditions, junctions and roundabouts are most certainly not road users. Since no human agency is attributed to either cars or large vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists are the only category of road user mentioned. I tend to be fearful (or not) of the drivers of metal boxes rather than the boxes themselves.

Secondly the use of "consistently". The behaviour of individuals, the design of junctions and roundabouts, the volumes of traffic are not consistent. My perception of risk from a pedestrian walking towards me on the pavement whilst I am on the road is different to that when we are both heading in the same direction on a narrow shared path. My perceived risk of junctions and roundabouts arises almost entirely from the volume and speed of motor traffic using them, not the junctions themselves.

I have no consistent perception of the level of risk associated with any of these factors.

Still, answers shoe-horned, make of them what you will.

[Paulatic]

"How often do you cycle?" - Does a morning and evening commute count as cycling once or twice a day?

".

I’m struggling to see any other answer to your example. Twice a day surely? Please enlighten me.

[Cyril Haearn]

Five days a week would be the answer I think

Sometimes I go for a ride, stop a dozen times, buy a paper, have a picnic, is it one ride, visit a museum, is that one "trip", or maybe out and back, two trips?

Or if I have several errands (shopping, post, library..) three or more trips

One might do 100 km a week, on Sunday, one trip
Or 100 km a week to and from work, including taking children to school and collecting them, 20 trips?

[meic]

Better than most surveys that we get.
It allows you to pick more than one option instead of shoehorning as much as usual.

There is one point though, that cyclists are on the whole already accepting and ignoring many of our perceived fears.
I am on the whole not scared out cycling because I have long since learned not to ride on the straight flat main roads that go where I actually want and to instead take the safer long tortuous hilly b roads and lanes across the hills instead.

[horizon]

Hi Jambate: would you mind saying a little bit more about the epistemology of your study, where the questionnaire and its replies fit into your overall study and your own perceived risks when you cycle. Many thanks, horizon.

[mjr]

+1 to several of the points above, especially the thing about cycling two to four times a day some days, but not every day, so what frequency should I have picked? Seemed like more than daily to me...

And while I'm happy to discuss things further in public forums, I'm not willing to get more emails about cycling.

[Jambate]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all your feedback, and responses! Apologies to anyone that struggled to answer any of the questions - writing surveys is far harder than I had initially imagined!

As it happens, pretty much any answer is useful so don't worry about not quite answering in the way you think a question should be answered.

Hi Jambate: would you mind saying a little bit more about the epistemology of your study, where the questionnaire and its replies fit into your overall study and your own perceived risks when you cycle. Many thanks, horizon.

Hi Horizon, I am trying to design a product to reduce the perceived risk in cycling, so the purpose of this study is to find out what people find scary. In my own experience, the scariest thing (that isn't actually life threatening) is being overtaken too fast and too close, which is pretty much what people said in their responses. The next stage will be a set of follow up questions to start finding out WHY that is scary. Once I know the why, I can start to design a solution to mitigate against it.

[gaz]

... I am trying to design a product to reduce the perceived risk in cycling, ...

It already exists and is used widely by many people to mitigate against their perceived risks in cycling even for short journeys that could easily be cycled.

It's called a car.

And with that, as the dragons say, I'm out.

[Cyril Haearn]

The choices offered are
Slight risk
No risk

Scroll over to the right for the other choices.

Scrolling did not work
Holding my smartphone in landscape format worked

[The utility cyclist]

Sigh, and yet another person that thinks the vulnerable need a product to protect them from those doing harm. Put your efforts into something actually meaningful, have you actually looked at the efficacy of pretty much everything that has been designed/invented for cyclists to help absolve those that are inducing the fear/increasing the risk of harm from their responsibilities?
If you are truly interested in reducing harm/fear of harm for people on bikes then products that change what a motorist can do in their vehicle, changing motorists behaviour and importantly removing motorists from the landscape entirely should always be the first things to look at.

Even having explosive projectiles that would be fired at vehicles or a narrow beam EMP device that can be fired off at motorvehicles to stop them in their tracks would not reduce the risk perception.
Have you looked at what happens when you change the risk perception of the vulnerable, specifically in cycling that's had a huge negative effect on cycling as a whole in the last 30 or so years, that being helmets?