Making cycling safer

One of the conclusions of the survey was that a big barrier that prevents a lot of people from cycling is that it is viewed as being too dangerous, and given that most of the cycling accidents are caused by a collision with a car or pedestrian, I started thinking of ways for cycling to become safer:

- Reduce the damage caused by an accident. One of the responses to my survey that really stood out was "If you cycle regularly, it is a matter of time before you are involved in an accident. All you can do is minimise the risks." Therefore there need to be more products that incorporate protection for the body when the rider comes off their bike.

- Increasing visibility. If a cyclist is seen they can be given enough space. Products should make the cyclists highly visible on the road.

-Sound. One area I was thinking of was that perhaps a cyclists needs a better means of making themselves known on the road that's more effective than the standard bell - one that can be heard by cars and lorries.

A bit of searching however and I came across this product


and this rather crazy demonstration video


Whilst this product does allow for the cyclist to make their presence known it does so in an antisocial and aggressive way. Perhaps a more 'friendly' version could be designed, one that responds to how hard you push it - making less noise for pedestrians but more noise for vehicles.

Bike in the home

In my survey, 59% of cyclists keep their bikes in their house and I'm curious as to how they are kept! Many of the respondents keep the bike in their kitchen.

This is a call for submissions of photos of bikes in the home - are they hung on the wall? Or just kept in the hallway.

here's where my bike is kept when not in use.



Please help out bu uploading a photo of your bike to the Facebook group or sending it to me in an email

The results are in

Firsty, a huge thank you to all those that took part. Here are the results from the cyclist research.

Overall conclusions

Non Cyclists
-Cycling is perceived as being dangerous by non-cyclists, despite 75% of cyclists surveyed feeling safe. Perception of safety is a key part of getting non cylists cycling as once they begin cycling and build confidence they feel safer.
-Fear of getting a bike stolen is a factor for both cyclists and non cyclists
-93% of non cyclists in London live within 10 miles of their commuting destination
-80% know someone who cycles, often they are told about the benefits but also that you do have to be careful
- Over half of non cyclists surveyed will consider cycling when the superhighways are introduced. Safety, bike parking and crime are still major set backs however.
-Cycling has to be perceived a being safer in order to get more people cycling.

Cyclists

-Cyclists have a love hate relationship with cycling. Many enjoy the benefits but find it frustrating
-Shockingly 61% of the cyclists surveyed had been involved in an accident (89% of them cycle everyday). The biggest cause of accidents are collisions with cars, interestingly, this was followed with collisions with pedestrians.
-The majority keep their bike in their house
-85% encourage friends to cycle
-The biggest downsides are theft, being sweaty and lack of cycle parking

-It was generally viewed that the best way to improve cycling in London is to educate and train cyclists as well as other road users
-Cycle lanes were generally critisised for having poor road surface or being poorly designed. Some even wanted cycle lanes removed altogether, believing that cyclists are better off sharing the road.
-Many suggested a change to traffic lights, with a green cycle light to allow bikes to set off a few seconds before the rest of the traffic.

A key quote that stood out:
"riding regularly its not a question of if but when you will be involved in an accident. all you can do is minimise risk as much as possible."

I have included both survey results here:

Survey Results - Non Cyclists in London

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Survey Results - London Cyclists

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Thanks for your comments

A quick note to say thanks for your comments so far - it's really good to get feedback, particularly when I start posting up the initial ideas.

Thanks also to those that filled out the survey.

I would still love some more responses from the non cyclist - so if you live in London, but do not cycle, please take a couple of minutes to fill it out here

Housemate in accident

This week my housemate was knocked off his bike and sustained a head injury requiring nine stitches. He wasn't wearing a helmet. There's a full account on 22GL

As my project progresses I am focusing more and more on the safety elements of cycling and how this can be improved.

Week two

Large goods vehicles are the main cause of death of cyclists in London, and this is an area that I am examining. I conducted an interview with a very helpful driver called Ray who let me sit in the cabin and experience the view of the road. Visibility of cyclists was is huge problem, especially when the LGV turns left and the trailer moves.

Bike Tree

Slightly cheesy production values but an excellent solution of storing bikes out of the reach of criminals. I would however imagine that this is prohibitively expensive and would require maintenance - all things that would prevent an employer or council installing it.

Nike Plus

Nike plus represents the commercialisation of a sporting activity with a series of products that are designed to encourage running and increase the enjoyment of running.

They may have asked themselves the question “How do we get more people running” just as I am asking “How do we get more people cycling?”

How they did it:
-Integration with ipod and iphone
-Create a community, the world’s largest running club
-Provides tools to help you improve your running
-saving your runs
-Rewarding you by telling you how many collories you have burnt
-Allowing people to be competitive
-Making it fun
-The more you run the higher your level
-Integration with social networks

Perhaps something similar could be developed for cycling? A way of recording your journeys, how much money you've saved (in my five years of cycling I've probably saved about two and a half thousand pounds. That's the first time I've thought about that)

iphone Arider

Personally I see a lot of problems with this design. Firstly you lose vision in one eye due to the eyepiece, or at least you'll struggle to focus between that and the road. Then you have the iphone on your head scenario - it will be annoying if you need to change where you're heading to, having to unclip it and then replace it each time. Not to mention, that it's easy pickings for an opportunistic thief to grab it out of the helmet. A bit too much overdesign in my opinion.

Light Lane

Whilst offering no more protection, the light lane does at least show the overtaking vehicle how much space to give the cyclist.