This report describes an experiment to determine the attitudes of 25 cyclists to sharing single-track roads with motor vehicles. Three widths of road (2.75 m, 3.00 m and 3.25 m) were examined and, on each width of road, all cyclists both passed a car travelling in the opposite direction and were overtaken by a car. Objective measurements and the responses given by the cyclists to questionnaires are presented and compared. Variations in results according to road width, age of cyclist and manoeuvre undertaken are discussed. Generally, no significant difference was found between results for the two age groups of cyclists (under sixteen and sixteen or over) or for the two manoeuvres. Cyclists stated that they felt unsafe in 22 of the 50 runs on the 2.75 m wide road, in 10 of the 49 runs on the 3.00 m wide road and in 0 of 49 runs on the 3.25 m wide road. Whilst there was a diversity of opinion amongst the cyclists over whether single-track roads are a good concept, a width of 3.00 m for such roads was found to be acceptable to many subjects and 3.25 m to virtually all. No attempt is made in this report to predict the likely safety record of such single-track roads. (Author/publisher)
Abstract