Cyclist fatalities and serious injuries down for 2013, but no room for complacency
By Victoria Hazael
Thursday, 26 June 2014
CTC campaign to make the roads safer for cyclists
Slight injuries to cyclists, however, rose by 3% between 2012 and 2013, and one year’s figures shouldn’t in any case make anyone, not least the Government, complacent. We need to put Space for Cycling on the political agenda at both national and local level, to ensure that Britain can capitalise on not only more, but safer cycling in the future.
Chris Peck, Campaigns and Policy Co-ordinator for CTC, responded to the new figures saying: “These statistics are generally good news for cycling. However, if our Government is serious about increasing cycle use, it needs to take action to make cycling feel safer. A rise in even minor injuries could be avoided.”
Even now Britain’s cycle safety record is behind other north European countries where levels of cycle use are far higher. To do better, we need to provide space for cycling on main roads, put 20 mph limits on most urban streets and enforce traffic law properly.”Chris PeckCTC Campaigner
5 billion kms were travelled by cycle in 2013, a fraction higher than the figure for the year before. The likelihood of being killed while cycling is 53% lower than it was twenty years ago.
The figures released today also show that in 2013 the total number of reported road casualties (slight, serious and fatal) dropped by 6% from 2012.
More information on previous figures can be found in Chris Peck's blog on the 2012 figures.
Notes to editors
The risk of cycling is based on the number of cyclist road deaths (109 in 2013) per mile cycled (5 bn kms in 2013). Similar data for 1990-2013 (reproduced from Department for Transport data) can be found in the table below.
A link to CTC’s calculation of the risk of death whilst cycling: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10cH3ULsFOKvKc_Nv7BVkHHn7AwMIOp2rxZ4byFG4GOo/edit#gid=331815480
Casualty figures are here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reported-road-casualties-in-great-britain-main-results-2013
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