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news
Broken bike (CC licensed image by garryknight, www.flickr.com)Cyclists the only road users for whom deaths rose in 2020 – but fatality rate fell by distance ridden
Cyclists were the only class of users of Great Britain’s roads for whom deaths rose during 2020, a year that in terms of transport saw huge changes in how people got around due to the coronavirus outbreak and the lockdown imposed by governments across the UK to try and contain it.
In all, 141 cyclists lost their lives in England, Scotland and Wales during the year, up from 100 in 2019, according to Reported road casualties Great Britain, annual report: 2020, published today by the Department for Transport (DfT).
Meanwhile, deaths among car occupants, motorcyclists and pedestrians all registered year-on-year falls of at least 15 per cent.
Lockdowns imposed during the year resulted in a big fall in motor traffic, with schools and many workplaces shut or operating at reduced capacity for much of the year and a rise in people working from home.
At the same time there was a big rise in the proportion of people cycling, and as a report from the DfT last week revealed, average journey trips were also longer.
Total casualties of all severities among cyclists stood at 16,294 during 2020, down 3 per cent on 2020.
“Pedal cyclist traffic increased by 46 per cent in 2020 compared to 2019, whereas all motor vehicle traffic decreased by 21 per cent,” the DfT said.
“Compared to other road users, pedal cyclist casualty rates saw a greater reduction of 34 per cent. This may be as a result of reduced motor vehicle traffic and increased pedal cyclist traffic.”
In a separate document on road user risk, the DfT noted that “the number of pedal cyclist fatalities was notably high during 2020, with a large increase in cycling following the Covid-19 lockdown from March.
“Together the ‘vulnerable road users’ accounted for over half of fatalities in 2020 (pedestrians 24 per cent, motorcyclists 20 per cent and pedal cyclists 10 per cent).”
Also published today by the DfT was a pedal cycle factsheet covering the period 2015-20, with key findings as follows:
an average of two pedal cyclists died and 83 were seriously injured per week in reported road casualties
a majority of pedal cycle fatalities (59 per cent) do not occur at or within 20 metres of a junction compared to 32 per cent of all seriously injured casualties
almost half (46 per cent) of pedal cycle fatalities in 2 vehicle accidents involved a car
56 per cent of pedal cycle fatalities occurred on rural roads compared to 29 per cent of traffic
83% of pedal cycle killed or seriously injured (KSI) casualties were male.
The same document also revealed that nearly half of cyclists killed or seriously injured from 2015-19 were men aged between 30 and 59, making up 46 per cent of casualties.
Over the same time span, 98 cyclists lost their lives in a crash with no other vehicle involved, but where there was another vehicle, it was most likely to be a single car, accounting for 298 deaths for 55 per cent of such crashes.
HGVs were involved in 92 cyclist deaths from 2015-20, with collisions involving that type of vehicle far more likely to result in the rider being killed, at 6.1 per cent of total casualties in such crashes, compared to 0.4 per cent for those involving cars.
The DfT has also launched an interactive dashboard which enables users to quickly find details of casualties and which can be filtered according to severity, sex and road user type, among other parameters. Currently, the website has data for 2017-19.
It also has interactive maps which can be drilled down to police force or local authority areas, including as far as London borough level, and which enable year-on-year comparisons to be made and again can by filtered according to selected criteria.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
- Cycloid 1 sec ago
What you say is true of course....
- David9694 12 min 38 sec ago
more wildlife mayhem https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/24302508.poole-swan-causes-crash-...
- NotNigel 13 min 56 sec ago
They're holding off the reporting till nick sprink has watched it on Eurosport/discovery+
- jaymack 28 min 26 sec ago
Many of us on this site rightly call out poor Policing; let's give credit where it's due - congratulations to Cheshire constabulary and the CPS and...
- parrotgone 1 hour 29 min ago
You do see it occassionally....
- Argos74 1 hour 37 min ago
Spotted on the Friends of the Fallowfield Loop Facebook group this morning. Tacks are the least of my worries.
- OldRidgeback 2 hours 57 min ago
When I lived in rural West Africa I'd often see quite young kids riding adult size bicycles. They'd be riding sideways with a leg under the...
- lesterama 3 hours 10 min ago
Plenty of iffy writing on this website - it is a blog after all - but this sentence ain't the worst....
- Rendel Harris 3 hours 37 min ago
Thanks, hadn't heard of that one. As you said, fairly unique circumstances.
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15 comments
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-53215121.amp
There was a 71% increase in drivers caught speeding in London when the coronavirus lockdown started, new figures show.
As others have mentioned probably should be careful about inferring from these numbers. One possible - without further info - is that people who were less skillful cyclists (including children) or generally less fit were tempted out. Possibly on poorly maintained bikes. Put another way just by having more people on bikes the numbers of single-bike crashes and indeed "medical incidents" while on a bike will be higher without any help from motorists.
I know the opinion was that driving was worse. I can't recall seeing any stats on how much reckless driving there was or if it was true that nutters made use of the extra road space to put their foot down. Or maybe it was just more salient with less "regular drivers" about?
If you're interested in more people cycling then subjective safety is a big factor. Cycling is actually a very safe activity. However most people don't do any risk calculations but simply go with "does it feel safe" and "are my peers / people I admire doing it"? So while we should certainly work to make it actually safer that doesn't change most people's behaviour until it feels safe - hence the increase in cycling when there were fewer cars about.
There were speeding stats issued by the Met/City of London which did show increases in speeding.
Yep, the geezer who used to be in charge of the Met Road Safety team tweeted out reports of 80mph recorded in 30 and 100mph in 50/60 zones because the roads were empty. I think the arrest stats were probably the same, but the twats who speed could speed faster was the outcome.
But we also had the someone who represented the HGV drivers come out with some gumph about cyclists need to be careful because his members were not expecting people to be on the roads so a cyclist might be missed or some other tosh. I think that came out around the time a HGV killed a cyclist in Lincolnshire or Oxfordshire rural area.
'Professional' drivers, eh? <eye roll>
Thanks - so that's official then - give someone an open road and they'll go faster. I wonder if anyone managed to get an Ig Nobel for that? I guess the flip side is if you want to make people go slower the infrastructure needs to guide them (eg. narrower lanes, bends - although that doesn't work out so well in the country...). Or have a policeman every 500 yards.
"Man in truck says truck drivers may not always pay attention" shocker...
I caught several on cycle cam when out riding doing at least 60mph in 30 limits, it was definitely a thing.
gumph about cyclists need to be careful because his members were not expecting people to be on the roads
Reminds me of the traffic PC who thought it was the cyclist's responsibility to get out of the way of close passing by looking behind- presumably all the time- and presumably by intermittent swerving left.
Fewer cars, more cyclists, lower rates of injury and death, but a rise in overall deaths. The problem during lockdown wasn't that there were more cyclists, it's that the remaining vehicles were being driven faster and more recklessly.
41% increase in a year that lockdowns dominated and all other transport type fatalities fell by at least 15%. I am deeply concerned as to what 2021 cyclist fatality figures will be when they're published. Driving standards have fallen noticeably, drivers are more impatient, less attentive and all I'm seeing on my social media page is a barrage of articles about cyclists being killed on the roads (this is just from sources in my region).
You have to be careful what you are measuring. Absolute numbers of Cyclist Deaths are up - simply because there were more cyclists doing more journeys - thats totally expected. Cyclist Deaths per km are actually down.
"“Compared to other road users, pedal cyclist casualty rates saw a greater reduction of 34 per cent. This may be as a result of reduced motor vehicle traffic and increased pedal cyclist traffic.”"
Thats not to say we shouldnt try to keep cyclist deaths down - every one is a tragegy, but it actually means - that during 2020 at least - the roads got safer for cyclists. Its not mentioned but also bear in mind if there was a year for a vast influx of novice cyclists on the roads - it was 2020.
2020 and 2021 are both going to be statistically anomalous years, I would caution about reading too much into any statistics for them.
I've been a cyclist for around 10 years, and 2020 was the tipping point for me needing a camera to go on the roads. The amount of police reports i'm making from dangerous driving are increasing monthly - i'm now around 8 or 9 a week. Less cars on the road resulted in more dangerous driving and speeding. Seems the drivers on the road today are impatient and don't know how to drive...Then there's the lack of enforcement...
#metoo, I have been using a camera since late 2019 in response to too many close passes - I mainly ride quite back roads away from rush hour but am averaging one police report for every hour I am out riding.
All I get from Avon and Somerset police is a generic notice that a warning, education course or enforcement will be happen - not been called as a witness so can only assume most are just warning letters.
2015 was the tipping point for me after Id had 2 incidents where people had deliberately driven vehicles at me to cause me harm, and by 2019 yeah I could have submitted 8 or 9 close passes a week from my commute rides, my weekend rides were mostly completely opposite maybe 8 or 9 instances in a year. So 2020 actually was quite nice to begin with during 1st lockdown as the roads were nice and empty, though I wasnt commute riding anymore,.
But when around May last year some of the restrictions lifted I noted a change on the road, drivers did start to seem more impatient, more aggressive than they were even in 2019, and I started to get more close passes, more dangerous driving, that rarely fitted the context of the road, as in they felt deliberately targetted at me just for being a cyclist that they happened to come across, it wasnt that I was just unlucky to be caught up in them driving like morons.
And this year similar, and Ive had more abuse shouted at me, been spat at, submitted probably as many incidents to the police this year than ever before and I normally only submit the really bad ones, but Im not getting a lot of success from it, and yet their stats still claim they prosecute a 1/3rd of submissions so there must be some insane near misses they are getting.
Basically every ride and that includes the weekend rides, I hate to think what it will be like back on the commute, I can guarantee now a bit of dangerous driving will be targetted at me, all which makes it feel a very hostile atmosphere to ride in sometimes now and I dont really know why.
Right now we are facing a fight to feel safe on the roads with very little protection mechanisms in place (including the police). This is whilst the MSM are doing everything in their power to whip up the hate towards cyclists. So the danger is using the statistic of km cycled to take the sting off the seriousness and tragedy of cycling fatalities. If my fears regarding 2021 statistics are correct, the only positive will be that there'll be an even more compelling case to make wholesale changes at government level (education & enforcement) to try and reverse the trend. Until then we keep our wits about us on the road because nobody else is looking out for us.