Road accident statistics

[drdoug]

I've lost the original source for this, but road accident fatalities in the
UK have dropped dramatically over the period 2000-2013. I think I heard
that they had started to climb again recently, which is what prompted me to
go get this graph.

Good news!

Comments

[drdoug]

The stats are great, aren't they? And I'm pretty sure they'd gone down considerably before 2000 as well. In my head 5,000 people die on the roads every year but it's well under 2,000.

On the cyclist thing, the numbers killed are small, but so are the numbers cycling. So I think part of the attention is the way the gross numbers don't control for accidents-per-mile. To make the point, we know for sure that riding a motorbike is massively dangerous, but this graph shows more deaths for pedestrians - but of course far more people walk than ride motorbikes.

The other factor is probably the perceived vulnerability and fault. Bicyclists seem very obviously vulnerable compared to cars, lorries and buses - and certainly feel very much so when you're on a bike. We think of cycling as a harmless or even good choice of mode (well, most of us think that) so we feel particularly bad about harm there. Whereas motorcyclists are seen as having deliberately chosen a high-risk mode and get a lot less sympathy, even though the stats are appalling.

Probably the visible infractions of "good behaviour" on the roads comes in to play here too. Cyclists jumping red lights and riding on the pavement are more frustrating than obviously endangering themselves (most of the time). Whereas motorbikes undertaking in the gap between lanes on a motorway, or overtaking on country lanes where there isn't really a safe space before the oncoming traffic, are more obviously making a very high-risk choice.