Bicycle safety

Incident where a cyclist was hit by a car
Segregated cycling along a Fietspad in Amsterdam. Cycling in the Netherlands is common and safe due to road designs that separate bicycle traffic from motor vehicles.

Bicycle safety is the use of road traffic safety practices to reduce risk associated with cycling. Risk can be defined as the number of incidents occurring for a given amount of cycling. Some of this subject matter is hotly debated: for example, which types of cycling environment or cycling infrastructure is safest for cyclists. The merits of obeying the traffic laws and using bicycle lighting at night are less controversial. Wearing a bicycle helmet may reduce the chance of head injury in the event of a crash.[1]

Most bicycling fatalities occur as a result of collision with a motor vehicle. Studies in multiple countries have found that drivers are at fault in the majority of these crashes.[2][3][4][5][6]

  1. ^ Olivier, Jake; Creighton, Prudence (2017). "Bicycle injuries and helmet use: a systematic review and meta-analysis". International Journal of Epidemiology. 46 (1): 278–292. doi:10.1093/ije/dyw153. hdl:1959.4/unsworks_46422. PMID 27450862.
  2. ^ Bíl, Michal; Bílová, Martina; Dobiáš, Martin; Andrášik, Richard (2016). "Circumstances and causes of fatal cycling crashes in the Czech Republic". Traffic Injury Prevention. 17 (4): 394–399. doi:10.1080/15389588.2015.1094183. PMID 26507371. S2CID 1848346. The driver was the guilty party in 57 cases (68.7%) and the cyclist in the remaining 26 cases (31.3%).
  3. ^ Chambers, Peter; Andrews, Tom (17 September 2018). "Rising cyclist death toll is mainly due to drivers, so change the road laws and culture". The Conversation. Retrieved 10 July 2022. In Australia, drivers are to blame for at least 79% of accidents with cyclists.
  4. ^ "Biggest reason for fatal cycling crashes? Drivers overtaking bikes". McClatchy. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
  5. ^ "Risky cycling rarely to blame for bike accidents, study finds". The Guardian. 15 December 2009. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
  6. ^ Glász, Attila; Juhász, János (2017). "Car-pedestrian and car-cyclist accidents in Hungary". Transportation Research Procedia. 24: 474–481. doi:10.1016/j.trpro.2017.05.085. ISSN 2352-1465. S2CID 114731588. The suspected primary reason of car-cyclist accidents was almost exclusively the driver's fault, in a total of 7,889 cases (99.6%), therefore we did not detail the accident numbers belonging to other reasons individually.