Quicker and safer on the road
Evidence provided by the London Cycling Campaign in Hackney
for the London borough of Hackney Footway Cycling Officers Group
the comparative risks of footway and carriageway cycling
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Aultmann-Hall The most pertinent evidence we have found comes from the studies done last year by Lisa Aultmann-Hall in Toronto & Ottawa, Canada (summarised below). This research has been published in Accident Analysis and Prevention, which is generally acknowledged to be the premier peer-reviewed research-based journal on the subject. Aultmann-Hall found that footway riding has crash rates 40 times that of on-road. Collisions were usually with other cyclists & vehicles, contrary to the perception that this is chiefly an issue of pedestrian/cyclist conflict. Aultmann-Hall identifies two types of rider: the on-road rider, and the footway rider, the latter having considerably reduced road awareness and an on-road crash rate two to three times worse than those who travel exclusively on the carriageway.
John Forester Forester's view of the risks of footway cycling can be summarised thus: Overtaking motorists cause only a very small portion of car-bike collisions. The cyclist using a footway route avoids this remote risk, but faces all of the other, more common, hazards from motor traffic under conditions which make it more difficult to detect and avoid them.
Other references To quote from the paper: "Bicyclists on a sidewalk or bicycle path incur greater risk than those on the roadway (on average 1.8 times as great), most likely because of blind conflicts at intersections. Wrong-way sidewalk bicyclists are at even greater risk, and sidewalk bicycling appears to increase the incidence of wrong-way travel." Also: "These results suggest that urban roadway design - not only bikeway design - must take into account that intersections, construed broadly, are the major point of conflict between bicycles and motor vehicles. Separation of bicycles and motor vehicles leads to blind conflicts at these intersections. It also encourages wrong-way travel, both on sidewalks or paths and on the roadway at either end, further increasing conflicts. Shared use of the roadway in the same direction of travel leads to fewer conflicts and fewer accidents." We also recommend research by William Moritz, viz William Moritz Adult Cyclists in the United States, Characteristics and Riding Experience paper 98-0009 at the Jan 1998 Transportation Research Board meeting, Washington DC. William Moritz, Survey of North American Bicycle Commuters; Design and Aggregate Results, Transportation Research Record no. 1578.
Summary ofAultman-Hall Studies on Sidewalk and Bike Path Cycling
Approximately 3,000 cyclists were surveyed (about 53% in Ottawa). Cyclist accidents (collisions, falls and injures) by facility (roads, sidewalks, and paths/trails) are analyzed and accident rates by exposure (per kilometre) on each facility type are compared. For falls and injuries, the lowest rates were recorded on road, followed by paths/trails. Sidewalk cycling had the highest rates. There was no significant differences for collisions on sidewalks in Ottawa but were higher on sidewalks and paths in Toronto. For Ottawa, both the fall rate and injury rate on sidewalks were four times higher than on roads. In Toronto, 9 and 6.4 times higher respectively. The authors also compared rates for road cyclists and sidewalk cyclists on-road vs paths/trails. A sidewalk cyclist was defined as one who cycled on the sidewalk for any part of a commute. Sidewalk cyclists incurred higher accident rates than road cyclists on both roads and paths - this is attributed to their being less skilled. The data also shows both road and sidewalk cyclists have higher accident rates on paths/trails. Some interesting facts and figures emerged for sidewalk cyclists. Don't forget, these are commuters. Sidewalk cyclists:
Aultman-Hall concludes that sidewalk cyclists need to be trained rather than being simply told to cease cycling on sidewalks. The fact helmet use is higher but vehicular cycling skills lower suggests that the relentless helmet use sloganeering may have obscured the message on the need for training. Addendum, July 2003 It is important to keep a perspective on the actual level of harm done by different types of vehicle to people on the footway. Answering a Parliamentary question, David Jamieson, a Department for Transport minister, said that in 2001 64 pedestrians were injured in collisions with cyclists on the pavement.
By contrast, the DfT's figures for collisions between motor cars and pedestrians on footways are as follows:
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