Bicycle crash casualties in a highly motorized city

doi:10.1016/j.aap.2010.05.011

Accident Analysis & Prevention

Volume 42, Issue 6, November 2010, Pages 1902-1907

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2010.05.011 Get rights and content

Abstract

The characteristics of bicycle crashes in cities where bicycles are a minor transport mode have received little attention in road safety research. However, the characteristics of these injury-inflicting bicycle crashes are expected to be very different from those happening in cities where cycling is generally considered as one of the major transport modes. Specifically, this study has the following three objectives: (1) to conduct the first scientific spatial analysis of bicycle crashes in Hong Kong; (2) to analyze the circumstances leading to bicycle crashes; and (3) to conduct an epidemiological study on injury patterns of cyclist casualties. Various spatial and statistical tools, including buffer analysis, chi-square tests, analysis-of-variance and binary logistic regression, are used to analyze the bicycle crashes in Hong Kong from 2005-2007. An important finding of this paper is that the bicycle safety problem has a clear spatial dimension. The crash circumstances in different parts of the city differed systematically. Furthermore, the findings suggest that initiatives to develop new cycle tracks and to encourage bicycles as a transport mode must be planned carefully with new infrastructure and policies to ensure the safety of cyclists.

Section snippets

Background

Cycling is being increasingly encouraged as a sustainable, inexpensive, environmentally friendly, transport mode, that is also good for health. However, cyclists are exposed to higher risk of injury and fatality in road crashes. In view of worldwide initiatives to encourage cycling, there should be higher awareness about the risk of cycling, especially in highly motorized societies where cycling is currently a minor transport mode and there are no special provisions (such as lane separation)

Database

Since any road crash involving injury to any person, whether the driver, passenger or pedestrian, or any animal, must be reported to the police in Hong Kong, the Traffic Accident Database System (TRADS) is an appropriate database for bicycle crash analysis. Nonetheless, research worldwide has increasingly suggested that under-reporting of injury-inflicting crashes to the police is not uncommon (Amoros et al., 2006, Austin, 1992, Bulls and Roberts, 1973, Rosman, 2001). Moreover, research using

Scientific Spatial Analysis of Bicycle Crashes in Hong Kong

Did bicycle crashes constitute a significant road safety problem in Hong Kong? From 1993 to 2007, bicycle crashes have become an increasingly acute road safety problem in Hong Kong. Its share in the total traffic crashes has increased significantly and continuously from about 2.9% in 1993 to 12.74% in 2004. The trend was slightly reversed after 2004 but it stayed at a high level of over 10% throughout the study period. In 2007, it stayed at 10.26%. Though this percentage was seemingly not very

Discussion

Bicycle safety is often neglected as a road safety issue in societies where bicycle is a minor transport mode. The true extent and nature of the problem are often concealed by the general impression that bicycle crashes are minor ones involving inexperienced cyclists on cycle tracks only. Through examining the traffic crash records in Hong Kong from 2005 to 2007, we show that the seriousness of the bicycle safety problem can only be truly appreciated by the small modal share of bicycles in the

Acknowledgements

This research work was funded by the Committee on Research, and Conference Grants (CRCG) of the University of Hong Kong (10207893).

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Citation Excerpt :
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Bicycle crash casualties in a highly motorized city

Abstract

Section snippets

Background

Database

Scientific Spatial Analysis of Bicycle Crashes in Hong Kong

Discussion

Acknowledgements

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