Cyclist deaths soar on rural roads in England

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Traction_man
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Cyclist deaths soar on rural roads in England

Post by Traction_man »

on BBC news web-site--

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-59477788

grim reading I am afraid.
Pebble
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Re: Cyclist deaths soar on rural roads in England

Post by Pebble »

doesn't surprise me in the least, the attitude from a sizeable minority of drivers is just appalling. Had one yesterday day, single track road, a car coming the opposite direction did not slow down at all, must have past me doing 50 or 60.
robing
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Re: Cyclist deaths soar on rural roads in England

Post by robing »

Doesn't surprise me either.
Not just cycling either. I am a runner and run on some rural lanes and have almost been run off the road.
Pebble
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Re: Cyclist deaths soar on rural roads in England

Post by Pebble »

robing wrote: 1 Dec 2021, 9:26am Doesn't surprise me either.
Not just cycling either. I am a runner and run on some rural lanes and have almost been run off the road.
I have a friend who is mainly a runner but does a little cycling, he maintains that cars are much more careful around cyclists than they are around runners - would you agree or disagree with him ?
robing
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Re: Cyclist deaths soar on rural roads in England

Post by robing »

Pebble wrote: 1 Dec 2021, 9:28am
robing wrote: 1 Dec 2021, 9:26am Doesn't surprise me either.
Not just cycling either. I am a runner and run on some rural lanes and have almost been run off the road.
I have a friend who is mainly a runner but does a little cycling, he maintains that cars are much more careful around cyclists than they are around runners - would you agree or disagree with him ?
Hard to say really. The most obvious difference is that when running I am on the right hand side facing oncoming traffic as per the highway code. On the bike I've been hit by a car twice now and had one very close shave. I always think when running I could always leap to safety in the verge!
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Mick F
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Re: Cyclist deaths soar on rural roads in England

Post by Mick F »

Grim reading of course. :cry: :cry:

What the report doesn't say though, is what proportion of cyclists are being killed and if it's any different to what it always has been.
They say there's a "cycling boom" so there would be an increase in fatalities, yes?
Mick F. Cornwall
Pebble
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Re: Cyclist deaths soar on rural roads in England

Post by Pebble »

Quote from the article
This was despite fewer vehicles using rural routes, and a marked drop in the amount of traffic during the pandemic restrictions.
(apart from the first few weeks of the first lock down where everyone seemed to be driving super carefully) Yes the roads were much quieter, but there did seem to be a higher percentage of people who were taking this opportunity to play at being racing drivers, I would see people driving much faster than normal, cutting corners and overtaking going into blind bends - I wonder if accident rates as a percentage of traffic were also up.
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mjr
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Re: Cyclist deaths soar on rural roads in England

Post by mjr »

Mick F wrote: 1 Dec 2021, 10:04am What the report doesn't say though, is what proportion of cyclists are being killed and if it's any different to what it always has been.
They say there's a "cycling boom" so there would be an increase in fatalities, yes?
Yes, but the "safety in numbers" theory would mean deaths increase less than cycling.

The problem is that the best comparable numbers for cycling (National Travel Survey and Active People Survey) are not released until a long time after the casualty data.

But last year, government was publishing traffic levels during covid. Someone could look that up. Bit of a shame the BBC reporter didn't.

As always, it is disappointing that the report is classified by the victim's mode of transport, not the killer's.
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Mick F
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Re: Cyclist deaths soar on rural roads in England

Post by Mick F »

mjr wrote: 1 Dec 2021, 10:44am As always, it is disappointing that the report is classified by the victim's mode of transport, not the killer's.
Yes, that old nugget.

"Pedestrian collides with car" or somesuch.

Victim blaming.
Mick F. Cornwall
Jdsk
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Re: Cyclist deaths soar on rural roads in England

Post by Jdsk »

Does anyone know why this story has broken today, please?

"Walking and cycling statistics", 22 September 2021:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collectio ... statistics

"Reported road casualties Great Britain, annual report: 2020", 30 September 2021:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistic ... eport-2020

Thanks

Jonathan
thirdcrank
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Re: Cyclist deaths soar on rural roads in England

Post by thirdcrank »

The linked BBC article seems to be a rehash of a media release by NFU Mutual (an insurance company for anybody who missed that ) launching a campaign "Respect rural roads" which seems to have some involvement with British Cycling and the British Horse Society.
Jdsk
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Re: Cyclist deaths soar on rural roads in England

Post by Jdsk »

thirdcrank wrote: 1 Dec 2021, 10:57am The linked BBC article seems to be a rehash of a media release by NFU Mutual (an insurance company for anybody who missed that ) launching a campaign "Respect rural roads" which seems to have some involvement with British Cycling and the British Horse Society.
That's what it felt like to me. And I haven't found any new data.

Jonathan
Pete Owens
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Re: Cyclist deaths soar on rural roads in England

Post by Pete Owens »

There is a finite risk of collision associated with riding a kilometre on a country lane then if you increase the number of km ridden (as happened during lockdown) then you would expect to see a proportional increase in casualties.

This is not news; it is advertising by an insurance company. The BBC should really be taking rather more care with their journalism and explain the context of the statistics, rather than simply cut and paste press releases like a local rag. There really is no way to tell from the story whether cycling became safer or more dangerous - or even whether the figure is statistically significant or just the sort of fluctuation you expect to see with series of small numbers.
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CyberKnight
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Re: Cyclist deaths soar on rural roads in England

Post by CyberKnight »

click bait headline, reading the article cyclists deaths up 50% but overall deaths up 66%
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661-Pete
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Re: Cyclist deaths soar on rural roads in England

Post by 661-Pete »

Pete Owens wrote: 1 Dec 2021, 11:18am There is a finite risk of collision associated with riding a kilometre on a country lane then if you increase the number of km ridden (as happened during lockdown) then you would expect to see a proportional increase in casualties.

This is not news; it is advertising by an insurance company. The BBC should really be taking rather more care with their journalism and explain the context of the statistics, rather than simply cut and paste press releases like a local rag. There really is no way to tell from the story whether cycling became safer or more dangerous - or even whether the figure is statistically significant or just the sort of fluctuation you expect to see with series of small numbers.
...and furthermore, don't forget Mayer Hillman's assertion regarding 'life years':
Mayer Hillman wrote:"..the health benefits of regular cycling in terms of life years gained through increased longevity, far outweigh the loss of life years in cyclists' deaths."
In fact he cites a ratio of 20:1. We have no reason to suppose that this ratio doesn't still hold good.
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