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Potential collision blackspots identified to help improve cycling safetybicycles-4245347_1920

Potential collision blackspots identified to help improve cycling safety

Over a six-month period 200 riders covered over 26,000 miles as part of the in-depth research
by Will Bolton
Sat, Aug 21, 2021 10:31
7

A new study could improve cycle safety by pinpointing potential collision blackspots, researchers claim. 

Hundreds of Birmingham-based cyclists travelled tens of thousands of miles as part of the Cycle Smart Brum study, which aims to provide city authorities with greater insight into where proactive safety measures would be best deployed.

Funded by the Department for Transport, and jointly undertaken by UK cycling technology and data company See.Sense and the Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), the study involved over 200 cyclists equipped with sensor-enabled See.Sense bike lights.

Over a six-month period, the riders covered over 26,000 miles and relayed billions of lines of data relating to their riding environment and activity via the light sensors. 

This data enabled researchers to form what they say is 'an extraordinarily accurate' picture of locations in the city where riders most frequently experienced ‘near miss’ incidents that did not result in collisions and therefore were usually not reported to police.

> Near Miss of the Day 626: “Clear and deliberate swerve” – but driver only gets warning letter

By cross-referencing this data with police reports outlining accident flashpoints in the Birmingham area, RoSPA and See.Sense were able to build a predictive model showing where cycle collisions are more likely to occur.

They were also to provide evidence that cyclists are 2.4 times more likely to experience a brake or swerve incident in the immediate vicinity of officially recorded collision locations, Transport Xtra reports.

David Walker, RoSPA’s head of road and leisure safety said: "Cycling collisions are typically under-reported and therefore it's vital that we understand more about their causes, so that road safety can be improved.

"Up until now, we’ve had to rely on ‘lag’ indicators such as the STATS19 report filed by police, usually when there has been a serious injury or death.

'This is why we are really excited about this research, which highlights how the swerving and braking data forms ‘lead-indicators’ that can help cities prioritise their safety interventions, or act as a tool to analyse an area based on other indicating data, such as reports from cyclists."

> A “slap in the face” – council promotes cycle commuting ... while ripping out bike lane

RoSPA and See.Sense say their work could help identify how towns and cities are designed and developed, helping to create safer environments for cyclists.

Safety
Collision
blackspots

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7 comments

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Milkfloat | 3 years ago
0 likes

The police are getting stacks of data daily through the portals where people are uploading video of near misses and actual collisions. This data is sat there ready to go, and actually shows where cyclists were concerned enough to report the incidents that concerned them. 

Avatar
eburtthebike | 3 years ago
4 likes

This kind of risk analysis is routine in some Scandinavian countries, and it should be here, not just a special one-off project.  Find the problems and solve them first before the bodies pile up, which is what any sensible system would do, but to apply this, finance and training would be required, and as we all know, councils are strapped for cash because the tories keep cutting their budgets.

As a CTC rep for my area (South Gloucestershire) I would sometimes point out that council road schemes increased danger for cyclists, but nothing positive ever resulted.  I know of an instance in a neighbouring authority where another rep did the same, and a death resulted at the junction, in precisely the predicted circumstances.  There are assessments available for non-powered users, but these are not mandatory and are therefore not carried out if the council thinks it might impact the design and cost.

Avatar
Awavey | 3 years ago
2 likes

Im still not sure what additional benefit the See.Sense data provides, their original idea was it would highlight routes/desire lines that cyclists took to allow councils to better plan infra or investigate the issues with the existing infra, Im not sure it works  as collision blackspot detection.

Firstly because even if the data matches up it doesnt prove there is a link, and secondly my see.sense light certainly goes all disco, over the mildest of bumps, Id dread to think how many collisions it thinks Ive been in as a result, except for the fact the software is flakey as hell on android phones, has never worked properly, and I wouldnt remotely trust any data it had collected on my behalf.

Avatar
Sriracha | 3 years ago
6 likes
Quote:

Up until now, we’ve had to rely on ‘lag’ indicators such as the STATS19 report filed by police, usually when there has been a serious injury or death.

So, supposing there had been seven deaths since 2008 at a junction...

Laudable as this study is, the idea that they will act pre-emptively, on forward looking indicators, when seven actual deaths since 2008 is no cause for urgency, strikes me as optimistic.

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ktache | 3 years ago
2 likes

Mentioned on Tuesdays Live Blog by AlsoSomniloquism.

Just establishing priority, the scientist in me...

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Flintshire Boy | 3 years ago
3 likes

Shouldn't such dangers-analysis be part of any scheme of paths/routes, AS PART OF THE ORIGINAL with appropriate risk-reduction measures built in, NOT as an afterthought? (FGS!)

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TheBillder replied to Flintshire Boy | 3 years ago
1 like
Flintshire Boy wrote:

Shouldn't such dangers-analysis be part of any scheme of paths/routes, AS PART OF THE ORIGINAL with appropriate risk-reduction measures built in, NOT as an afterthought? (FGS!)

Yes, but we are where we are, to coin a phrase. The tech and the will to do this is recent; most cycle routes use roads which might be medieval. This could help build a case for improvement or new infrastructure, and also show where poor infra really isn't making a positive difference.

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