Near Miss Project: 'Very scary' incident once a week

The Near Miss Project has published a new report, showing that UK cyclists face a very scary’ incident every week.

1500 UK cyclists took part in a diary study, which broke down reported ‘near misses’ by different levels of injury risk, fear, and annoyance.

It also recorded how cyclists believed that most near misses could be prevented but it tended not to be within their control to do so.

Most cyclist also said they feared motor vehicles the most, with the largest perceived as the most risky. They said they would welcome segregated infrastructure, as well as interventions targeted at road culture and driver behaviour.

This is the second year that the Near Miss Project has run, led by Dr Rachel Aldred of the University of Westminster and funded by Creative Exchange and Blaze.

This paper “explores the impact of different incident types on people cycling both immediately and in the future,” according to the authors.

“It analyses what near misses tell us about cyclists’ experience of problems related to road user behaviour and culture, and infrastructural conditions for cycling.

“The paper explores what cyclists experiencing near misses think might have prevented them.

“Based on this and on a comparison with common types of injury incidents, summary recommendations are made for policy and future research.”

The authors also noted: “Dividing number of incidents by total distance (or time) generated a rate of 0.172 incidents per mile or 1.82 incidents per hour. Over two-fifths were ‘very annoying’ and one in seven ‘very scary’.

“Although living in London made no difference to reported rates, types of incident reported differ between London, other urban, and rural areas. These to some extent seem to correspond with differences in causes of cyclist deaths; a greater proportion of left hook incidents in London, for example.”

Are you a cyclist concerned about your safety on the roads? Check out this project and do your bit here.