Employing an in situ diary, 291 road users (males and females, mean age 41.57 years) in Oxford (pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, car and bus drivers) recorded details of journeys made during 1 week and noted incidents and near-misses which occurred on these journeys. On average, pedestrians and cyclists reported 0.18 incidents per mile travelled and motorcyclists, car and bus drivers reported 0.02 incidents per mile travelled. Analysis revealed mutual conflict between cyclists and buses, and irritation on behalf of pedestrians towards cyclists on pavements. Only 35% of incidents involving cyclists occurred at junctions and the paper discusses likely reasons for the discrepancy between this and the usual two-thirds figure quoted in official accident records. While the rate of incident perception reflected the vulnerability of pedestrians and cyclists, the amount of distress experienced did not, as bus drivers rated more of their incidents as distressing than did any other group. When incident reporting was compared to accident figures, the data suggest that car drivers were paying more attention to near-misses with the less vulnerable road users (those who would harm them) than they were to near-misses with more vulnerable road users (those whom they could harm). (A)
Abstract