CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure

Bike share schemes slash injury rates

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  1. Dave
    Member

    Very interesting blog post (also here) looking at a recent study into cities which implement bike share schemes (I think in the US):

    All injuries fall by 28% in bike share cities versus a 6% rise in non bike share cities.
    Head injuries fall by 14% in bike share cities versus a 4% fall in non bike share cities.
    Serious head injuries fall by 26% in bike share cities versus a 6% rise in non bike share cities.

    Pretty dramatic really. Bizarrely the study's main conclusion was that helmet use should be enforced in bike share schemes (even though serious head injuries already fell by 26% and we know that helmets aren't good for bike share).

    Go figure.

    Posted 9 years ago #

  2. Try Cycle
    Member

    that's pretty counter-intuitive - you'd expect there to be more casual/inexperienced riders or folk who are unfamiliar with the roads (tourists for example) which would lead to a rise in accidents.

    Maybe it raises the profile of cyclists on the roads and drivers adapt, or it massively inflates the number of recorded miles/km cycled and dilutes the number of injuries/mile

    the helmet thing appears to be a bit of a non-sequitar (i feel like a proper guardianista using a latin term on a forum, maybe its time to reign in the quinoa consumption a bit!).

    Posted 9 years ago #

  3. Dave
    Member

    There was a study done relatively recently looking specifically at the safety of Boris bikes which found a significant health benefit: BBC summary, paper.

    I find it pretty interesting/disturbing that in London for all cyclists (not just Boris bikes) there is actually no overall health benefit for female cyclists as the injury rate is so high. Crikey!

    Posted 9 years ago #

  4. Tulyar
    Member

    Suggest you go back about a decade and check 5000 response Oxcam survey - very interesting correlation on "Lot's Wife" effect.

    Women self reported having difficulty with lifesaver (looking back over shoulder), related review of crash and incident data, women had higher ranking for incidents where cyclist moved right in front of following vehicle (or following vehicle moved left?) <ducks as motorbike riding females take aim>

    Posted 9 years ago #

  5. Nelly
    Member

    Been in London since Friday and observations are:

    I would be scared witless cycling here, traffic treats roads as racetracks.
    Boris bikes well used by wobbly tourists near Tower of London (my base) but few seemed to have ventured on to roads.
    I wonder if bike scheme stats will show how many are regular user v casual tourist use?

    Posted 9 years ago #

  6. gibbo
    Member

    or it massively inflates the number of recorded miles/km cycled and dilutes the number of injuries/mile

    It (the chart on the cyclelicio site) seems to be saying a reduction in the number of total injuries - rather than injuries per 1000 cyclists or injuries per 1000 miles.

    I wonder if the cities (all in N America) with bike shares combined the implementation of the schemes with other cycling safety initiatives.

    Or maybe more people cycling meant that cyclists were seen as human - everyone has a friend using the scheme - rather than some scum sub-species that needs to be eradicated.

    Posted 9 years ago #

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