Just another ride in to the office
How many times have you been cut up whilst riding to work? or found yourself repeatedly having to make eye contact with every single driver just to make sure they’ve seen you, and are not going to pull out obliviously whilst picking their nose?
How many times have you found yourself cursing and swinging your foot in an attempt to sideswipe that high-sided white van that’s giving you ‘the squeeze’ between itself and the kerb?
Well, ok perhaps I’m dramatising things a little, but those of us that do our daily commute by cycle, can sympathise with these events, and those are the lucky ones. The unluckier riders amongst us find ourselves spending the day nursing a mangled knee, or a lump on our heads the size of a second helmet.
Julie Hatfield believes the more people ride, the more motorists will become aware of cyclists and the safer it will be. Picture: Vanessa Hunter
Well, an article by Persephone Nicholas, who blogs for the ‘Australian’ newspaper, sheds some light on how we may combat this lack of awareness in motorists. According to a study by Julie Hatfield from the the University of NSW, the number of road traffic accidents involving cyclists, DOES NOT proportionally increase with the number of cars on the road.
According to Julie, more cyclists make drivers used to seeing them, and therefore are more likely to look out for them in the future.
Julie Hatfield from the Injury Risk Management Research Centre at the University of NSW addressed last month’s seminar, describing the findings as “a virtuous cycle“. “The likelihood that an individual cyclist will be struck by a motorist falls with increasing rate of bicycling in a community. And the safer cycling is perceived to be, the more people are prepared to cycle.”
I’ll try to remember that next time I narrowly escape death on my way in to the office, and that the light at the end of the tunnel may not just be a half sleeping truck driver hurtling towards me whilst changing his CD over…
To read the article in full, follow this link…
Hi,
I think you may have misunderstood one of the points from the article - which is that the number of accidents does not increase as the number of CYCLISTS (not cars as you suggest) increases. In fact, the reverse is true. It states in my article: “Studies in many countries have shown the number of motorists colliding with walkers or cyclists doesn’t increase proportionally with the number of people walking or riding. For example, a community that doubles its cycling numbers would expect a one-third drop in the per-cyclist frequency of a collision with a motor vehicle.”
I hope this helps clarify things.
Keep on cycling!
Persephone