For 13 percent of the Belgian population the bicycle is the main mode of transportation for daily trips. The most recent internationally comparable statistics on the annual average number of cycling kilometers dates back to 15 years ago. With more than 300 kilometer cycled per person per year, Belgium is situated in the European top 3 with regard to bicycle use. An evaluation of the safety of cycling has to take the higher degree of underregistration of bicycle accidents in comparison to motorized modes of transport into account. The underregistration is partly due to the fact that 87 percent of all hospitalized bicycle victims are due to single vehicle accidents. Taking underregistration into account, the risk to be seriously injured per bicycle kilometer is estimated as 23 times higher than for car drivers. With 28 percent of all serious road traffic injuries in Belgium, cyclcists are overrepresented in the road accident statstics. A comparison by age group shows that senior cyclists have an even more seriously increased risk while cycling. International comparisons reveal that the more bicycles are used in a region, the lower the risk per kilometer cycled becomes. The fatality risk for cyclists, for instance, is about twice as high in Wallonia than in Flanders. At the same time the risk for cyclists in cycling countries like Denmark and The Netherlands is even many more times lower than in Flanders. More research is needed to investigate whether this "safety by numbers" effect is due to a better road infrastructure in cycling countries/regions or to a combination of it with an increased attention for cyclists. International analyses of the causes of bicycle accidents point to the expected factors: the instability that is inherent to two-wheelers which increases the role of the physical condition and the relative vulnerability (cf. seniors) of cyclists, risky driving behaviour and inappropriate attention of cyclists as well as other road users, insufficient segregation of heavy motorized traffic and vulnerable road users and suboptimal speed management. In-depth accident research reveals that the main causes are both situated at the level of the cyclists as at the level of the other road users. An analyses of the Belgian key indicators shows that both the number of cyclist fatalities as the number of lightly and seriously injured cyclists stagnates over the last decade. In the same period, the injury statistics of motorized road users globally decreased. Since the bicycle share in the total number of trips decreased slightly since 2009, this relative deterioration of bicycle safety in Belgium does not seem due to a possible increase in bicycle use. Due to a lack of detailed exposure data for cyclists this trend can however not be evaluated scientifically. In the age group of 10 to 14 year olds almost 35% of all fatalities occurs on a bicycle. In the group of 20 to 24 year olds, this percentage drops to a mere 2 percent. The analysis of all bicycle injuries (mainly light injuries) reveals a peak for 10 to 19 year olds, while this peak does not occur in the elderly age groups. Senior cyclists however, are overrepresented in serious injuries: about half of all cyclist fatalities occurs in the group above 65 years of age. A detailed analysis of the location of bicycle accidents shows that about 75 percent of all light injuries occurs in built up areas. For other road users, this percentage is only around 55 percent. Serious bicycle injuries also occur more frequently in built up areas (60%) than for other road users (40%). Fatal accidents occur mostly outside built-up areas for both cyclists (60%) as for other road users (70%). This summary of the safety of cycling seems to appear relatively negative for cyclists. However, analyses of the total benefits of cycling for society show a much more positive picture. Hartog et al (2010), for instance, showed that a modal shift from cars to bicycles for short trips would result in 9 times more life years gained than life years lost due to traffic accidents and an increased exposure to air pollution. These analyses clearly show that efforts are necessary to increase bicycle safety and to stimulate bicycle use. An analysis of the international literature on measures to reduce bicycle accidents shows that speed management in the large sense is the most crucial lever to increase bicycle safety. In order to diminish the fatality risk for cyclists, strategic visions like Vision Zero and Sustainable Safety recommend to limited the maximally allowed speed to 30 or 50 km/h at locations where cyclists and motorized traffic are subject to possible direct conflicts. In areas with higher speed limits maximal efforts are necessary to segregate cyclists from motorized traffic. Given the importance of single vehicle crashes in the total number of bicycle accidents the design and maintenance of road infrastructure needs to take care of obstacles and situations that increase the accident risk for cyclists or that increase the potential seriousness of cycle accidents. At the level of the cyclists, the emphasis is put on the cyclists' visibility and the use of bicycle helmets. The technical and ergonomic properties of the bicycle are also important. An optimization of the passive and active safety of motorized vehicles and certain ITS applications can also increase bicycle safety. In-depth research shows that the human factor (human behaviour) remains the most important causal factor in road traffic accidents, also for cyclists. Systematic efforts and hence necessary at the level of traffic enforcement and road safety education. (Author/publisher)
Abstract