Road casualty UK: 10 years of deaths mapped and visualised
The numbers are horrific: 32,955 killed, nearly 3m injured between 2000 and 2010. This is 10 years of deaths and injuries on Britain's roads.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
Road injury and casualty map
(14 posts)-
Posted 13 years ago #
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Time to swap to a motorcycle to get round town ;)
Posted 13 years ago # -
32,955 killed. That's a startling figure.
For equivalence...
We've been in Afghanistan for ten years, 388 UK personnel have been killed.
We've been in Iraq for 8 years, 179 deaths.
There are marches numbering thousands about these wars (okay, so it's not necessarily just about the deaths of 'our boys' but it's a big part of it, and there's also the cynicism about the reasons for going in linked to oil supply which is inextricably linked to motor vehicles).
Remember the Swine Flu panic and media coverage? In 2010 ten people died. On the roads almost ten people die every day.
Bird flu deaths? 0
The roads - one of the biggest preventable causes of death out there?
(in comparison heart disease and various cancers kill many many more people - certainly in the case of heart disease more exercise through the likes of cycle promotion would reduce those deaths AND the deaths on the roads!).
The difference in the 'preventable' tag between road deaths and diseases is that in diseases it's a case of monitoring and regular checks and sometimes lifestyle changes that make them preventable. Ont he roads it is often just 'taking care' that makes the deaths preventable...
Posted 13 years ago # -
I know it's not statistically like for like by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn underline how relatively unscathed cyclists are in Embra.
Posted 13 years ago # -
What strikes me is that seeing it visually instead of numbers makes it remarkably clear how many of the victims (everywhere) are pedestrians.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Eyeballing it suggests that being in a vehicle is one of the most dangerous places to be - much more so that being on a bike!
One to roll out whenever someone says how dangerous it is to cycle...
<steps back to let Inst chip in!>
Robert
Posted 13 years ago # -
@Roibeard, presumably the numbers of people in vehicles on roads is quite high compared to those on bikes... Whether that makes it proportionately safer to cycle, I dunno.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Glasgow seems a bit of a nightmare compared to Edinburgh. As far as road deaths are concerned, that is.
Posted 13 years ago # -
The map is fascinating, especially if you zoom in on your local streets.
"One to roll out whenever someone says how dangerous it is to cycle..."
Doesn't answer that question though, because it doesn't address how many journeys were undertaken or their length.
What it does show pretty clearly is the cost to society of motor vehicles is high and the cost to society of cycling is low. (I'll leave estimating the benefits to someone else...)
Posted 13 years ago # -
@crowriver & alibali
Stop spoiling my junk stats...
;-)
Perception is rarely based on evidence and there are different ways to make folk re-examine their perceptions - I think one of the other threads has discussion on absolute numbers of cycling deaths being used effectively in campaigning for improved infrastructure in Holland. Even whilst the per cyclist, or per mile, death rate might have been falling...
Robert
Posted 13 years ago # -
Oh, I'd best chip in then.
If you take any number and multiply it by 10 it will be 10 times bigger. It's a common ploy to accumulate many years of data to make things appear really dramatic. Any problem looks worse when you make it 10 times bigger. When you visualise it, it helps if you make the symbol for fatalities really big because then you can make your map look like it's covered in death. Very effective, especially if the symbols don't scale with the map.
Posted 13 years ago # -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15975720
BBC has a version
Posted 13 years ago # -
The BBC version only has fatal accidents and it seems more accurate at vehicle types than the guardian version (which had several motorcyclists wrongly listed as vehicle occupants). Strangely, when I looked earlier today, the BBC version had light conditions and weather - I'd noticed 2 that seemed unlikely - but doesn't have these details now.
There is also a website called http://www.crashmap.co.uk/ which says it has details of all injury road accidents from 2005 - 2010, but charges for more than just location date and severity.Posted 13 years ago # -
Has to be said though, flaky though many assumptions may be form such maps, they are quite indicative as to the transport choices that look counter-intuitively (to many, mainly motorists and EEN commenters) the most dangerous.
Cars
Untitled by blackpuddinonnabike, on FlickrPedestrians
Untitled by blackpuddinonnabike, on FlickrBikes
Untitled by blackpuddinonnabike, on FlickrPosted 13 years ago #
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