Cyclist deaths up 50% on "rural" roads in 2020

[rogerzilla]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-59477788

People driving like Lewis Hamilton as there was less traffic, plus more cycling?

[ElyDave]

yes read that, wondering how much of it is simply higher exposure and statistical outcomes or general twattery by other road users.  I may just be more aware these days but it's rare that I have a ride with no elements of close pass, stupid pull-outs, aggression of some kind

[Quisling]

Other factors to consider:
* reduced road surface maintenance during lockdown?
* newer, less experienced cyclists on the road?

From my experience as a former community speedwatch co-ordinator and long term rural dweller I'd say it was idiots driving like there was nothing round the corner.  Police/council not interested in near hits, only in actual accident stats so no number of dead deer or other wildlife count towards improvements in road safety.

Also, putting it all in context now, 2000 road deaths a year is peanuts compared to 50 - 200 a day COVID deaths so whilst it's a great headline unfortunately I can't see much being done about it.  The XR-led approach to pushing modal shift (from car to bike) is probably going to be more effective than any government response, since they're more interested in shifting people from car to EV car even though total numbers are expected to grow massively by 2050.

[grams]

I was hoping to find some more details, but sticking the name of the campaign "Respect Rural Roads" returns nothing but a handful of spammy news articles. Nowt directly related on the NFU, BHS or DfT websites that I can find either.

Bizarre.

[ian]

It might be statistical, but my anecdotal experience from (mostly) walking in rural roads and lanes is that driving standards get worse year on year, even as a walker unless you force cars to slow down by meandering in the middle of the lane, a good proportion will take the invite to zoom by without slowing, giving you an entire centimetre or so of space. There seems very little anticipation of conditions and that there might be a horse, person, cyclist, or another car around a corner. Also, the cars are bigger, so they're hammering their SUVs down tight lanes with little margin for error. Judging from the periodic skidmarks and piles of car parts, there are no small numbers of errors. Given there's no expectation of encountering the police and the general sense of invulnerability drivers have (and that fewer and fewer of them have any experience other than driving), I can only imagine it getting worse.

[Cudzoziemiec]

There was also an increase from 2018 to 2019 according to those figures. It would be interesting to have the figures for 2017 as well.

By "rural roads" do they actually mean country lanes or all roads outside urban areas, and if the latter then what's the distribution between unclassified and classified, and has it changed over the same time?

[Kim]

It might be statistical, but my anecdotal experience from (mostly) walking in rural roads and lanes is that driving standards get worse year on year, even as a walker unless you force cars to slow down by meandering in the middle of the lane

Incidentally, I've noticed an increase in this sort of thing since the lockdown.  One guy is a repeat offender.  I've startled him twice on the same road by ringing my bell from a reasonable distance (which he ignores), doing a crunchy gear change (which he also ignores) and then passing as wide as I can (which isn't as wide as I'd like, because he inevitably moves sideways at the last second).  But pedestrians, in general, seem more inclined to use the width of the road, rather than creeping along whatever bit of verge is walkable.

[Jurek]

If you cycle up Ditchling Beacon you can spot a door mirror in the verge every few yards.

[ian]

Every Sunday morning we like to count the dead signs and street furniture around here (mostly rural, Woldingham-way) – there must be plenty of people hooning around the lanes late at night judging by the toll. You don't want to be a bollard or signpost.

[ElyDave]

It might be statistical, but my anecdotal experience from (mostly) walking in rural roads and lanes is that driving standards get worse year on year, even as a walker unless you force cars to slow down by meandering in the middle of the lane, a good proportion will take the invite to zoom by without slowing, giving you an entire centimetre or so of space. There seems very little anticipation of conditions and that there might be a horse, person, cyclist, or another car around a corner. Also, the cars are bigger, so they're hammering their SUVs down tight lanes with little margin for error. Judging from the periodic skidmarks and piles of car parts, there are no small numbers of errors. Given there's no expectation of encountering the police and the general sense of invulnerability drivers have (and that fewer and fewer of them have any experience other than driving), I can only imagine it getting worse.

this is kind of where my sentiment came from - whilst I have seen some degree of degradation in "standards" I also continue to see some very good standards.  I'd consider myself "rural to the max" with plenty of single track roads round here, and I'd see these a bit of a "special case" for lack of decent standards, people just do not know how to use the periodic passing places, and certainly seem to think that they can just squeeze past - obviously with no risk to them.  By absolute contrast I've also been followed patiently by a man in a van for a mile until I could find a place to let him past

[markcjagar]

Purely anecdotal but I find it's a good/mediocre/terrible 20/60/20 split on driving quality and it's been that way since I started cycling about 8 years ago. That is, on the South Yorkshire/NE Derbyshire rural roads which I prefer.

The dickheads are getting worse because they know they won't get caught but I don't feel like there are more of them.

However, there are significantly more cyclists on the roads since lockdown, which I think is possibly one reason there's been an increase in deaths.

[MartinC]

My anecdotal contributions (I live and cycle in a rural environment) is that driving standards have been on a constant downwards trend everywhere for as long as I can remember and that last year the number of cyclists of all ages went up and has persisted to some extent especially in the summer.  This summer I had a close miss (motorist overtaking me on a blind bend) and I can't remember the last time this happened previously.  So I'm not sure if there's a spike in the level of risk lately or the figures reflect increased numbers of cyclists.

[ian]

It might be statistical, but my anecdotal experience from (mostly) walking in rural roads and lanes is that driving standards get worse year on year, even as a walker unless you force cars to slow down by meandering in the middle of the lane, a good proportion will take the invite to zoom by without slowing, giving you an entire centimetre or so of space. There seems very little anticipation of conditions and that there might be a horse, person, cyclist, or another car around a corner. Also, the cars are bigger, so they're hammering their SUVs down tight lanes with little margin for error. Judging from the periodic skidmarks and piles of car parts, there are no small numbers of errors. Given there's no expectation of encountering the police and the general sense of invulnerability drivers have (and that fewer and fewer of them have any experience other than driving), I can only imagine it getting worse.

this is kind of where my sentiment came from - whilst I have seen some degree of degradation in "standards" I also continue to see some very good standards.  I'd consider myself "rural to the max" with plenty of single track roads round here, and I'd see these a bit of a "special case" for lack of decent standards, people just do not know how to use the periodic passing places, and certainly seem to think that they can just squeeze past - obviously with no risk to them.  By absolute contrast I've also been followed patiently by a man in a van for a mile until I could find a place to let him past

There are a small number of drivers who are very courteous (like us) and will slow to a practical halt and let you get by, usually with an exchange of cheery waves. But it's a notable minority. I don't think the majority are being intentional dicks (you might get worse as a cyclist, of course), it's mostly borne out of ignorance. They don't know what it feels like to have a car blast by and quite often they don't seem to realise how large their car is and that it fills the entire width of the lane.

There do seem to be a lot more cyclists around here, and good god, some of the passes drivers make are horrendous.

[spindrift1]

In 2018, 0.9 billion miles were cycled and 48 cyclists were killed on the UK's rural roads.
In 2019, 0.9 billion miles were cycled and 60 cyclists were killed on the UK's rural roads.
In 2020, 1.7 billion miles were cycled and 89 cyclists were killed on the UK's rural roads.

https://twitter.com/anotherJon/status/1466091603706187788

[FifeingEejit]

In 2018, 0.9 billion miles were cycled and 48 cyclists were killed on the UK's rural roads.
In 2019, 0.9 billion miles were cycled and 60 cyclists were killed on the UK's rural roads.
In 2020, 1.7 billion miles were cycled and 89 cyclists were killed on the UK's rural roads.

https://twitter.com/anotherJon/status/1466091603706187788

So cycling statistically got safer

[drossall]

I've not looked properly at the figures for several years. But, if I remember rights, total deaths were falling from 150 towards 120 per annum, and I also remember a report saying how large a percentage were caused by large vehicles. So I'm trying to work out the big picture - percentage of deaths in town vs rural, and definition of rural for that matter. Has anyone seen an overview? Do a lot of accidents with lorries happen on rural roads?

[Pingu]

ITYM people using large vehicles.