New study suggests high injury rate in food delivery cyclists is under-reported

I live in london where i pretty much witness the same thing on a daily basis... quite a few of them ride de-restricted electric bikes that go well beyond 20-25mph and they are all over the pavement, the roads and through red lights like absolute pilocks.

Probably 99% of them dont have any form of insurance either so thats another reason why they possibly dont report incidents... There are a few insurance companies out there that will insure food delivery cyclists although i am unaware if any of the companies themselves as employers offer employee insurance. In any case, Insurance isnt required for the job  although it probably should be since youre out on the road a lot like employees doing deliveries on mopeds.

They should have some form of insurance for the work they do.

Obviously the cyclists side is only one side of the story, Lots of drivers drive like utter twats as well (and also without insurance) so it would be unfair not to call them out. So while im not trying to victim blame, they sure dont set any good examples either.

Agreed. The standard of riding is often appalling, and the home-brewed e-bikes go at speeds which both increase the likelihood and severity of crashes. They conform to every stereotype thrown at cyclist, and help to perpetuate them. Perhaps some of this is down to the pressures and incentives of the gig economy, and I don't doubt that better infrastructure would help reduce injury rates. But I fear that if mandatory registration of bikes ever becomes a reality, it will be because of these riders and their illegal bikes.

Not to condone the recklessly ridden e-motor bikes masquerading as assisted cycles or the frankly alarming riding styles, but the root problem is delivery companies setting their service standards by speed of delivery and rewarding delivery personnel by their rate of work.

My guess, and I appreciate that this will affect a vital source of income for those affected, is that delivery riders will be increasingly replaced by autonomous drones of various trundling and flying types and we'll have a whole bunch of different concerns.

It would be interesting to compare the accident rates of delivery riders on bicycles and mopeds/(normal) scooters. They have the same incentives, and although the scooter riders aren't saints, the standard of riding is generally much higher than the cyclists. I suspect that the difference is down to training and accountability (i.e. registration plates).

I've seen the motor scooter riders cut through pedestranised areas to skip going around it legally. I've also seen Uber drivers take a left turn into a road that has been closed off for left turns and made exit only and seen delivery vans of multiple companies, branded and unbranded drive over pavements, left hook or pull out on me from side roads or suddenly stop and swing around with no indication. 

The incentives are the same which is money is only made if you do the job quickly and most of the people are just treated like shit by the Gig service they are "working" for. Vehicle type doesn't seem to matter at all. 

I agree that the scooter riders are no paragons of virtue. I've had one threaten to assault me when I tried to stop them riding through a pedestrianised area. As Owd Big 'Ead points out above, riders are often looking at their phones as they ride as they are relying on GPS, and that applies to scooter riders as well as e-bike riders. But taking all of that into account, the average standard of e-bike riders is worse in my experience.

Couldn't agree more: as a daily London cyclist and an occasional driver, delivery riders are a danger to themselves and other road users.  There's been a sharp and continued uptick in cyclists injured and killed in traffic accidents since 2016, which coincides with the rise of the likes of Deliveroo. The Australian survey shows delivery cyclists are 13x (!!!!!) more likely to be involved in an accident than leisure cyclists. Though I can't find any stats for the UK I'd be surprised if it was lower. 

The delivery companies themselves could do something here, checking the bikes to ensure that they haven't been tampered and ensuring that their riders CAN ACTUALLY RIDE A BIKE SAFELY and are both identifyable - and insured (as they are working).

It's more likely, however, that their employers are part of the problem, incentivising riders to deliver quickly, and increasing the risk of accident to their riders and potential customers - of which I am not one.

Is that 13x more likely based on the same distances and similar area? I would wager that city riding is far more dangerous than country roads and that delivery drivers are doing far more miles than the average rider. Couple that with the awful and agressive driving I see in London whenever I end up there and I would find it hard to make any sense of how much of that 13x is on the riders and how much is on the situation they a riding in. 

The only way delivery companies could realistically make sure riders are behaving is to have their own ebike fleet with tracking. That way they could see where their riders are going, the speeds they are doing, when there is a crash and whether they are clearly riding like bellends. 

I'm not quite sure how these companies can deincentivise dangerous riding either. Its fundamentally a job that rewards speed of delivery and frequency of delivery. 

Firstly, the study was about the under reporting of injuries, not how to place the blame.
Secondly, if it was about an exploited workforce with zero employment rights, would you take a different view?