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Hampshire the most dangerous place to be a cyclist in 2019Here be Dragons - Hampshire.jpg

Hampshire the most dangerous place to be a cyclist in 2019

Police officers in Hampshire attended a total of 567 collisions
by Will Bolton
Fri, Aug 09, 2019 11:57
11

New figures from police across the country show that almost ten per cent of all incidents involving cyclists occurred in Hampshire. 

The data has been compiled by cycling injury specialists Claims.co.uk using Freedom of Information requests submitted to police forces across the country, reports the Daily Echo. 

Johnnie Dellow, a member of the Southampton Cycling Campaign, described Hampshire as an affluent and busy county which suffered from poor transport links, resulting in over-reliance on the car.

He added: "Congestion and frustration often spills over into aggressive driving.

"Add to this the sheer number of people using their phones while driving. Both this and the aggression need targeting in the way drink-driving was in the 1980s and 1990s."

In the past year police officers in Hampshire attended a total of 567 collisions in which cyclists had been injured. 

Last year police across the country attended more than 6,600 incidents involving cyclists and vehicles.

Earlier this morning Southampton Cycling Campaign posted a link to a petition asking people to write to the new Transport Minister, Chris Heaton-Harris, to call on the government to ring-fence local authority funding which they say is needed to provide cycling infrastructure that would hopefully lower the number of incidents. 

Cycling UK’s chief executive, Paul Tuohy, said: "Investment in cycling could make a huge and remarkably cost-effective contribution to tackling several of the economic, health and environmental challenges now facing our country.

"The aim must surely be to deliver a strategy that genuinely transforms our communities into clean, safe and attractive places to move around on foot or by cycle."

In July last year Ipley Crossroads in the New Forest was dubbed one of the most dangerous junctions in the UK for rural cyclists with seven incidents involving bicycles occurring at the crossroads between 2009 and 2015; two of which were fatal. 

Another unavoidable danger of riding on rural roads is the presence of large, slow moving farming vehicles. 

In May we reported on the case of a New Forest cyclist who fortunately emerged unscathed after crashing into tractor bucket on descent.

The cyclist involved, off-duty paramedic Les Goddard, said his helmet saved his life in the collision.

Cyclist unscathed after crashing into tractor on descent 

One of our recent Near Miss Video’s also came from Hampshire, in this case the police eventually caught the driver responsible.

Police act fast after close pass in Hampshire  

It was filmed by road.cc reader Cycloactive, who told us that it happened in Huish Lane, Basingstoke and he reported the incident to police.

He said: “For the first time ever in my experience with Hampshire Constabulary the registered keeper, Gary Walker of Sky View Roofing and Building Services, was sent a Notice of Intended Prosecution.”

accident
hampshire
New Forest

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11 comments

Avatar
Bmblbzzz | 4 years ago
1 like

And impress on him not to leave it locked on the road after dark, however good the lock, as it's hard to ride home with no saddle or wheels. 

Avatar
ktache | 4 years ago
0 likes

OldRidgeback, knowing universities, and guessing how you may have built the beater, make him take that.  He'll hate you for it, but after the initial bike theft frenzy that will occur in the first few weeks, he might have figured out better places to store his bike, and locking strategies, then he takes his good bike (fully insured of course).

Avatar
kil0ran | 4 years ago
0 likes

Here's the info site for the grandly-titled Southampton Cycling Network

https://transport.southampton.gov.uk/connected-southampton-2040/southamp...

They are making significant changes to infrastructure but as always there are bits they've cocked up. Definitely prioritising cycling in some areas - for example they've remove a 2-way rat-run and inconvenienced car drivers/businesses on SCN1 - the yellow route.

I used to commute by bike to central Southampton on the yellow route and the improvements they're making are very significant. It's not quite there yet but if they deliver all the proposals it will be one of the best cities in the UK to cycle.

Avatar
Deeferdonk | 4 years ago
0 likes

This info is a bit meaningless without knowing what percentage of cyclists/cycling miles occur within Hampshire. If 10% of cycling occurs in Hampshire then these statistics are not surprising and not necessarily worse than anywhere else ( although obviously every single "accident" is a horrible thing). If there is lots of cycling it might even technically be the safest county in the country!!

Avatar
Awavey replied to Deeferdonk | 4 years ago
0 likes

Deeferdonk wrote:

This info is a bit meaningless without knowing what percentage of cyclists/cycling miles occur within Hampshire. If 10% of cycling occurs in Hampshire then these statistics are not surprising and not necessarily worse than anywhere else ( although obviously every single "accident" is a horrible thing). If there is lots of cycling it might even technically be the safest county in the country!!

well Im not sure how they work that out anyway, its probably relying on those less than reliable stats from the sports survey about cycling, but even when Suffolk Police recently published stats that cyclists accounted for 20% of the countys KSIs, but only covered 1% of the roads,no-one seemed terribly concerned by it.

but here are claims.co.uk stats though https://www.claims.co.uk/worst-cycling-regions

but the numbers dont seem to tie in with the police own KSI reports, and for all we know West Yorkshire or Northumbria are the more dangerous than Hampshire, its just they didnt provide any figures.

Avatar
Housecathst | 4 years ago
0 likes

As somebody who clocks about 12,000 a year on the roads of Hampshire I’m a little surprised by this, it’s not that bad. I would think the figures are somewhat effected by the dangers of roads in places like Portsmouth and the 7th circle of hell that is the Southampton road system. 

Incidentally, I rode the very road in the above picture, it’s stocks lane dropping down towards corhampton, really lovely area for cycling and very quiet roads. 

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OldRidgeback replied to Housecathst | 4 years ago
0 likes

Housecathst wrote:

As somebody who clocks about 12,000 a year on the roads of Hampshire I’m a little surprised by this, it’s not that bad. I would think the figures are somewhat effected by the dangers of roads in places like Portsmouth and the 7th circle of hell that is the Southampton road system. 

Incidentally, I rode the very road in the above picture, it’s stocks lane dropping down towards corhampton, really lovely area for cycling and very quiet roads. 

 

What's so bad about the Southampton road system? I ask as elder son is off to university there. We'll be travelling down with him and he wants to take his bike. I'd rather he took the banger bike I've built up for him (it works but won't be stolen) but he'd rather have the much shinier Specialized. Are the roads particularly bad for cycling? I go down that way from time to time to race at the Knightwood BMX track but I don't know Southampton very well.

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kil0ran replied to OldRidgeback | 4 years ago
0 likes
OldRidgeback wrote:

Housecathst wrote:

As somebody who clocks about 12,000 a year on the roads of Hampshire I’m a little surprised by this, it’s not that bad. I would think the figures are somewhat effected by the dangers of roads in places like Portsmouth and the 7th circle of hell that is the Southampton road system. 

Incidentally, I rode the very road in the above picture, it’s stocks lane dropping down towards corhampton, really lovely area for cycling and very quiet roads. 

 

What's so bad about the Southampton road system? I ask as elder son is off to university there. We'll be travelling down with him and he wants to take his bike. I'd rather he took the banger bike I've built up for him (it works but won't be stolen) but he'd rather have the much shinier Specialized. Are the roads particularly bad for cycling? I go down that way from time to time to race at the Knightwood BMX track but I don't know Southampton very well.

It's pretty good for cycling. Definitely bring the beater rather than the Spesh though. There's a big investment going on in protected infrastructure, which means at the moment most of the road network is dug up and traffic is particularly bad. Easy to escape the city though and there's fantastic cycling to the north and west (and south if you hop on the ferry)

Avatar
pockstone | 4 years ago
3 likes

https://www.advertiserandtimes.co.uk/new-forest-speed-limit

https://road.cc/content/forum/264902-call-lower-speed-limits-protect-new...

It's all OK, cyclists in Hampshire can 'bounce' off the front of trucks, according to a certain Councillor Glass.

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ChrisB200SX | 4 years ago
2 likes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puK5CwThaq4

Avatar
ktache | 4 years ago
4 likes

Road.cc, may I ask that you could make an editorial decision to not use the term "accident" when discussing these crashes, collisions and incidents.

The area around Farnborough is never that pleasent for me.

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