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Near Miss Project needs your help to study road danger

Researchers want to find out how near-misses and other incidents affect cyclists

We hear lots about the worst road incidents involving cyclists: collisions that leave bike riders dead or fighting for their lives in hospital. But there are vastly more unpleasant minor incidents that don't result in injury: inadvertent close passes; deliberate 'punishment passes'; 'Sorry Mate I Didn't See You' near-misses; abuse; harassment; and many many more. At worst, these leave cyclists shaken and fearful. At best, they're a dispiriting part of urban cycling that helps deter potential cyclists who aren't young, fit, brave and confident.

The Near Miss Project aims to document the size of the problem and find out what effect it has on cyclists. Westminster University researcher Rachel Aldred and laser-projection front light maker Blaze are looking for cyclists to document their riding experiences for just one day.

The researchers say they suspect the constant background noise of near-misses really affects the way people ride — if they choose to ride at all. They hope to use the findings to brief policy-makers, planners, and driver training organisations, calling for a reduction in incidents.

"If we can prevent some of these incidents, we could dramatically improve the cycling experience and potentially reduce the likelihood of more serious incidents," say the researchers.

Dr. Rachel Aldred, Senior Transport Lecturer at Westminster University said: “We’re asking as many cyclists as possible to contribute to the Near Miss Project and sign up to share any cycling near misses they encounter during one day between Monday 20th October – Sunday 2nd November.

“Although research into near misses is commonplace in other areas of transport — such as rail and air — it’s near absent when it comes to cycling, which is what compelled us to launch the Near Miss Project.

"We carried out a small pilot which revealed the average person experienced three near miss type incidents in just one day. These occurrences can’t be ignored in thinking about what puts people off cycling.

"I’m interested in not only how regularly these incidents are happening, but also the emotive elements involved; how do they leave people feeling: threatened, angry, ashamed, frustrated? What’s more, minor incidents can be viewed as an early warning signal; they may indicate a risk of more serious incidents.”

“We want the research findings to be used by planners and policy-makers and to help drivers better understand near miss type incidents from a cycling perspective.”

Emily Brooke, founder of Blaze said: “Safety is undeniably still a massive barrier to people cycling. While a near miss may not feel like more than a frustration or irritation at the time, the potential ramifications could be massive. Our belief is that these incidents - the ones that happen on a weekly, if not daily, basis - are in fact the ones which influence the way we cycle, or if we choose to cycle at all.”

Brooke says that while she was developing the Blaze light she realised how regularly she was experiencing near misses and how easily they could have turned into something more serious.

"I think we condition ourselves to forget about them almost as quickly as they happen," she said, "but we shouldn't have to just accept them as part and parcel of cycling. In one day I think I counted as many as seven near misses including everything from a scooter getting dangerously close to my inside, to a pedestrian glued to their phone stepping out in front of me without looking.

"We genuinely believe this study will reveal insights to improve the safety of fellow cyclists on our roads and I'm personally impatient and fascinated to see what we learn."

To participate please visit: www.nearmiss.bike and share your stories with #nearmiss

The pilot study

Researchers ran a small pilot on Tuesday, September 30 2014.

The study involved usable data from 25 respondents travelling a total of 250 miles.

People experienced on average 0.8 incidents per trip stage (part of cycle journey). This equated to average 3.2 incidents per person on the day in question or one incident every 3.1 miles.

Respondents were asked to rate incidents on a scale of 0-3 for how annoying and how scary they were.

Incidents involving no motor vehicles (just other cyclists or pedestrians, or for example potholes or in one case a squirrel!) scored an average of 1.7/3 annoying and 0.7/3 scary.

Incidents that did involve at least one motor vehicle were twice as scary and scored 2.2/3 annoying and 1.4/3 scary.

Negative feelings reported by people experiencing an incident included — as well as fear and annoyance — shame, frustration, embarrassment and guilt.

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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5 comments

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PonteD | 10 years ago
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I would be happy to do it, but just 1 day isn't really that much of an accurate picture. I find the conditions on the day and even which day of the week can determine the behaviour of road users. Try it on a monday or a Friday and I'm willing to bet its worse than perhaps a Wednesday or Thursday.

I've had a nice pleasant couple of weeks commuting but the last week has been a nightmare with incidents every day since last Wednesday. It may be down to the change in the weather or other factors, but there has been a definite change in driver behaviour in the last week.

Wouldn't it be better to just have a data collection service, whereby users can submit reports of events as and when they happen? If this was carried out over a period of several months and open to all, I imagine they'd start to get a good overall picture nationwide that could also factor in the weather/time of day/day of the week/etc.

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ylaway replied to PonteD | 10 years ago
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Something like http://collideosco.pe/ ?

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Thaarg replied to PonteD | 10 years ago
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Looks like this will be a two week study.

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Quince | 10 years ago
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I'm glad this is at least being discussed. Cycling seems to often be measured in 'how likely it is to kill you', but it's not to only important factor. Just because something doesn't kill or injure you doesn't mean it it's necessarily very pleasant: Sticking a chilli up your nose, being woken with a foghorn, and being threatened with a potentially lethal weapon (knife, gun, car etc.) all being examples.

As well as making cycling safe, it also has to be pleasant for people to feel comfortable taking part en masse. Admittedly, stopping the maiming and killing is probably a good place to start in terms of pleasantness - but it's not the entire picture.

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jollygoodvelo | 10 years ago
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I'll play along with this.

Think how many near misses could be avoided if drivers were looking for a tiny green 'what *is* that' on the floor.

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