Cycle safety: a holistic perspective

1. Cycle safety:a holistic perspective How to deliver More and Safer Cycling Roger Geffen Campaigns and Policy Director CTC, the national cyclists’ organisation

2. About CTC • CTC the national cycling charity • c70,000 members, founded 1878 • Cycling activities, membership services (legal, insurance, magazine) • Cycling development e.g. cycle training • Campaigning nationally and locally

3. Health Benefits • Cycling in mid-adulthood gives you a level of fitness equivalent to being 10 years younger… …and a life expectancy 2 years above the average A relationship between cycle use and obesity?

4. Cycling is healthy not dangerous • You are less likely to be killed in a mile of cycling than mile of walking • Health benefits far outweigh risks, by c20:1 • Those who do NOT cycle to work have a 39% higher mortality rate than those who do (Copenhagen heart study) It is dangerous NOT to cycle!

5. Fatalities involving different road users: who gets killed? Health v safety? • Cyclists have a very low rate of involvement in injuries to others. • High cycle use and good cycle safety are linked: the “Safety in Numbers” effect (www.ctc.org.uk/safety-in-numbers). • e.g. London since 2000: • Cycle use up 150%, serious and fatal injuries down 18% • Many other examples from UK and Europe Cars Vans / M’cycles Buses / Peds Cycles Lorries Coaches

6. Safety in numbers:Why does it happen? What does it mean? Three possible explanations: • Drivers become more aware of cyclists and better at understanding / anticipating them. • A greater proportion of drivers will themselves be cyclists, improving their understanding. • Increased political will to improve cycling conditions. Implications: • More cycle use and better cycle safety can, and should, go hand in hand. But action is needed to ensure they do. • Tackle actual and perceived risks to cycling: hostile roads/junctions, speeds, bad driving, lorries. • Provide ‘Bikeability’ national standard cycle training for people of all ages, backgrounds, abilities. • Measure actual cycle safety (i.e. per unit of cycle use, not just cyclist casualties) and perceptions of safety. www.ctc.org.uk/safetyinnumbers

7. More and safer cycling:Key points • Cycling is good for our own health, and that of our communities and the environment • Cycling gets safer the more cyclists there are • So “more” AND “safer” cycling can and should go hand in hand: complementary not contradictory aims • Tackle the fears which deter people from cycling • Speed, irresponsible driving, hostile roads and junctions, lorries • Set targets and indicators which encourage this

8. 1. Traffic speeds • Welcome positive noises on 20mph, but Government needs to “speed up on slowing down” in both urban and rural areas • Benefits of 20mph • 90% fewer KSI in Hull’s 20mph zones, 56% decrease in collisions (1994 – 2001) • Benefits health, road safety for all, quality of life, economy • Popular! - 75% support 20mph limits, incl 72% of drivers

9. 2. Irresponsible driving • Better training and testing • Clear focussed driver awareness campaigns • Close overtaking • Looking before turning at junctions • Car doors ….LINKED TO • Increased enforcement activity (and hence police resourcing) • Fundamental review of policing, prosecutions and sentencing needed CTC’s Road Justice campaign aims to tackle bad driving and promote responsible road use www.roadjustice.org.uk

10. 3. Hostile roads and junctions • Set new design standards based on EU best practice (incl. innovations currently being trialled / proposed reg changes) • Focus on major junctions / one-way systems • Ensure network coherence and continuity. • Cycle-proofing: audit process to ensure cycle-friendliness is designed in at outset • Professional training / awareness

11. 4. Dangerous vehicles • HGVs: account for 20-25% of fatalities in GB, 53% in London (2001-5), 6 out of 8 fatalities in London so far in 2013. • Solutions relate to vehicles, driver training and awareness, fleet management and (above all) demand management / access restrictions. • Motorcycles also have a disproportionately high involvement rate in both pedestrian and cyclist casualties, especially serious and fatal injuries

12. 5. Positive promotion:cycle training & other “smarter choices” measures • Cycle training and other targeted opportunities to cycle: continue / extend availability incl for adults – focus on workplaces, women, health patients, minority / disadvantaged groups • Cross-departmental/organisational collaboration: importance of involving depts for / partners from health, education & business • Positive promotion and activities (e.g. TfL’s ‘Catch up with the bicycle’ campaign, Sky Rides) • Avoid scaring people e.g. with shock-tactics “road safety” campaigns!

13. 6. Measuring success • Set rate-based targets – e.g. the national target to halve the risk of ped and cycle KSI per 100,000 miles travelled – to encourage “more” as well as “safer” cycling • “Perception-based” indicators - could be monitored as an add-on to survey on perceptions of PT safety, would avoid data problems at local level, and would end tendency to scare people off cycling! • This will encourage action to tackle the fears which deter people from cycling: speed, irresponsible driving, hostile roads and junctions, dangerous vehicles (especially lorries). • Fewer deterrents => more cycling => safer cycling

14. Cycletopia • A visualisation of a model cycling town, based on what is already happening in the UK. • Includes infrastructure, promotion, integration and leadership • You don’t need to dream of the Netherlands, it can be done here too! www.ctc.org.uk/cycletopia N.B. For CTC’s campaigns briefings (e.g. on health, safety, infrastructure, local transport and many others) see www.ctc.org.uk/campaignsbriefings

15. Cycle safety:a holistic perspective How to deliver More and Safer Cycling Roger Geffen Campaigns and Policy Director CTC, the national cyclists’ organisation