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Age, crash type and the changing patterns of cycling fatalities in Australia between 1991 and 2022
  1. Soufiane Boufous1,
  2. Jake Olivier2
  1. 1 Transport and Safety Research, School of Aviation, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  2. 2 School of Mathematics and Statistics, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Soufiane Boufous, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; soufiane{at}unsw.edu.au

Abstract

Background Australia has made significant efforts in recent years to promote cycling.

Methods Trends in cyclist fatalities in Australia between 1991 and 2022, particularly in those aged 60 years and over, were examined using Poisson regression modelling.

Results Overall, cyclist fatalities decreased by 1.1% annually. However, while there was an annual decline of 2.5% in those aged <60 years, fatalities in the 60+ age group increased by 3.3% annually. Mortality rates also showed an annual decrease of 3.5% for cyclists aged <60 years but remained almost stable in the 60+ age group over the study period. Single vehicle fatalities increased markedly, particularly among the 60+ age group (4.4% annually).

Discussion The observed increase in 60+ fatalities is due to the ageing of the population rather than a rise in cycling popularity as previously thought. The rise in single vehicle fatalities is likely to be related to the increase in the availability and use of dedicated cycling infrastructure.

  • bicycle
  • mortality
  • descriptive epidemiology
  • older people

https://doi.org/10.1136/ip-2023-045003

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @JakeBiostats

    • Contributors Both authors contributed to the conceptual design of the study and the development of the manuscript. SB led the interpretation of the findings and the writing up of the manuscript and JO led the Poisson regression analysis.

    • Funding The study did not receive direct funding. Both authors were supported by the Faculty of Science at The University of NSW, Sydney.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.