Cyclist fatalities fall by 4% to lowest ever recorded level, but cycle traffic down 7% and serious injuries higher than 20 years ago, new government figures reveal

The number of cyclists being killed on the UK’s roads has fallen once again from 91 fatalities in 2022 to 87 in 2023, the latest reported road casualty statistics published by the Department for Transport have shown.

However, this continued drop in cyclist fatalities, the lowest number since records began 45 years ago, is counterbalanced by a significant decline in cycling traffic in 2023, as the number of miles travelled by bike fell by seven per cent, a marked trend of the post-pandemic period.

The number of cyclists seriously injured on the road also dropped slightly between 2022 and 2023, from 4,045 to 3,942, though this number remains significantly higher (18 per cent) than the 3,329 cyclists seriously injured in 2004.

According to the Department for Transport’s ‘Reported road casualties Great Britain’ annual report for 2023, which outlines and analyses the casualty statistics of a range of road users, 87 cyclists were killed in Great Britain last year, while 3,942 were reported to be seriously injured, and 10,970 slightly injured.

Those figures mean that cyclist deaths have fallen by four compared to 2022, when 91 cyclists were killed, and comprise the lowest annual death toll for cyclists since records began in 1979 (when, incidentally, 320 cyclists were killed on Britain’s roads).

It is also only the third time on record that cyclist fatalities were below 100, with 2018 (when 99 cyclists were killed) the only other year before 2022 to not reach that unfortunate milestone.

By comparison, cycle traffic has also increased by 39 per cent in the two decades since 2004, when 134 cyclists were killed.

However, the number of people on bikes seriously injured in 2023 is 18 per cent higher than the equivalent number in 2004, though the overall number of collisions involving injured cyclists has dropped by over 1,600 to 14,999 (a figure that, as the Department for Transport notes, must take into account the reality that many lesser incidents involving cyclists on the roads go unreported).

But while the DfT’s graphs show a welcome and steady drop in the number of cyclists being killed or injured (with the exception of the outlier year of 2020), when you zoom in more closely, the picture looks somewhat less promising.

In fact, with the number of overall miles travelled by people on bikes in 2023 (3.6 billion) dropping by seven per cent compared to 2022, the number of cyclist casualties of all severities actually increased last year, accounting for 4,152 injuries or deaths per billion vehicle miles travelled.

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Along with this drop in cycling miles outweighing the fall in casualties, the DfT’s National Travel Survey also revealed last month that distances cycled annually in England have fallen to their lowest levels in a decade, while car journeys continue to rise.

According to the DfT’s figures, the average person in England cycled 47 miles during 2023, just over half of the high-water mark of 2020, which saw 88 miles travelled on average by bike. However, 2023’s average distance was also 17 per cent down on the previous year’s figure of 57 miles per person, and below the pre-pandemic average of 54 miles in 2019.

Nevertheless, compared to 2004, the overall casualty rates per billion miles travelled has fallen by 35 per cent, with fatalities decreasing by 53 per cent.

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Taking into account the period between 2019 and 2023, an average of two cyclists were reported to have been killed and 80 seriously injured each week. 82 per cent of these casualties were male, while 15 per cent were under the age of 20.

Meanwhile, 46 per cent of cyclist fatalities were in two-vehicle collisions involving the driver of a car. However, the highest proportion of casualties that are fatal occurred in two-vehicle collisions involving an HGV, with 5.9 per cent of collisions between a cyclist and a lorry resulting in the cyclist’s death.

Collisions in which cyclists are killed or seriously injured are also most likely to occur from 7am to 10am and from 4pm to 7pm on weekdays, while weekends see a ‘peak’ around mid-morning between 10am and 12pm.

Between 2019 and 2023, 58 per cent of cyclists’ deaths also took place on rural roads, which account for just 31 per cent of traffic, while 57 per cent of fatalities did not occur at or within 20 metres of a junction.

The three most common contributory factors for fatal or serious collisions involving cyclists were the motorist failing to look properly, failing to judge other road user’s speed, and driving in a reckless or careless manner, or in a hurry.

In the overall road casualty picture for 2023, cyclist casualties of all severities saw the biggest percentage decline of all road users in the UK.

72,826 car drivers and passengers were killed or seriously injured last year (with 725 fatalities), 315 motorcyclists were killed (and 16,663 injured), and there were 19,263 KSI collisions involving pedestrians, leading to 405 deaths.