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On same day Mail warns more pedestrians being injured in collisions with cyclists, two serious crashes a mile apart show that both groups are vulnerable to large vehicles

Cyclist seriously injured after rush-hour incident involving coach minutes after lorry killed pedestrian nearby in East London

The Daily Mail yesterday warned of a rise in the number of pedestrians injured in collisions involving a cyclist on a day when two incidents during rush hour in London showed starkly that both are vulnerable types of road users – with a female cyclist dying of injuries sustained after being dragged under a coach, and a pedestrian killed by a lorry.

The two incidents happened 15 minutes apart and within a mile of each other. Earlier on Monday morning 30-year-old Anita Szucs had been killed as she rode her bike home from work in Edmonton, with the driver of the vehicle that hit her failing to stop.

> Two London cyclists killed - one in hit and run, another after being hit by coach

Those are just three incidents from one day in one city, but in the past week alone, dozens of newspaper reports across the country tell of people on foot or on bike whose lives have been cut short or irrevocably changed due to injury caused by the actions of someone behind the wheel of a motor vehicle.

The Mail’s article was based on analysis of Department for Transport (DfT) road casualty statistics by data analysis company Mapmechanics. It starts by saying, “The number of accidents between cyclists and pedestrians has soared by almost 50 per cent in seven years.

"One crash on pavements or roads now takes place every day as the number of cyclists increases. The total number of accidents rose to 408 in 2015, according to official figures, a significant jump from the 274 in 2009."

Collisions between cyclists and pedestrians can happen in a variety of locations, and for a number of reasons – anyone cycling on a road in a city will have had someone step out in front of them without looking, for example – although the focus in this type of article always seems to come down to the perceived danger caused by people cycling on the pavement.

The Mail flagged that up too. Despite official figures including pedestrians injured in a collision with a cyclist while crossing the road, for example, it highlights the initiative by police in London not to fine cyclists riding on the pavement in Primrose Hill but to find out why they feel unsafe riding on the road.

That approach is in fact in line with longstanding Home Office guidance repeated more recently by the DfT, that fixed penalty notices should only be issued in such circumstances when the person riding on the pavement is doing so inconsiderately, or is causing a danger to others.

Sam Jones of the charity Cycling UK was quoted in the Mail’s article, saying “We appreciate the concern but we cannot agree [pavement cycling] is the danger many believe it must be.”

We took a look at the numbers from the DfT’s Reported Road Casualties Great Britain Report for 2015 to put them into context.

In that year, of 406 collisions in which a cyclist and someone on foot was involved – slightly lower than the Mail’s 408, possibly due to subsequent database updates – two pedestrians were killed and 100 seriously injured. The other 304 sustained slight injuries.

There were more incidents involving most other types of vehicle – 16,415 involving cars, for example, leaving 3,433 pedestrians seriously injured and 212 dead.

And even when the total number of casualties was lower, the outcome could be significantly different. There were 381 pedestrian casualties involving a heavy goods vehicle, with 105 seriously injured – but 44 people lost their lives.

One point that seldom gets mentioned when it comes to perception of conflict between cyclists and pedestrians is that it is not in a bike rider’s interests to crash in the first place.

The same statistics show that in 2015, 107 cyclists were injured following a collision with a pedestrian – 18 of those seriously.

That point wasn’t mentioned in a follow-up piece today on the Daily Mail’s website written by Brendan O’Neill and which uses those figures published yesterday for a verbal assault on cyclists that, even by the newspaper’s standards, is as vitriolic in its rhetoric as it is ignorant of the facts.

The headline alone, and the bullet points that follow it, should give you reason enough to steer clear.

 Is ANYWHERE safe from the lycra louts? They've got cycle lanes galore. But now they're on pavements and jumping lights - and mowing down pedestrians

  • Smug cyclists are far more likely to send your blood boiling then other motorists 
  • There's been a 50 per cent rise in pedestrian accidents in the last seven years
  • A growing common sense among bikers is that cyclists should rule the road 
  • Their arrogant attitude isn't helped by officials who pander to them

Maybe we should do a Spinal Tap and turn the headline of our article linked below up to 11?

> 10 of the most hysterical anti-cycling Daily Mail headlines

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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18 comments

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ClubSmed | 7 years ago
0 likes

Reading the comments on the article actually got me thinking about bike registration. There are lots of people calling for bikes to be registered so that perpetrators of accidents can be identified, which is idiocy. However, it might as a byproduct reduce bike thefts because they have to be registered and have unique frame numbers.
Just a thought that occurred to me.

Avatar
OldRidgeback replied to ClubSmed | 7 years ago
2 likes

ClubSmed wrote:

Reading the comments on the article actually got me thinking about bike registration. There are lots of people calling for bikes to be registered so that perpetrators of accidents can be identified, which is idiocy. However, it might as a byproduct reduce bike thefts because they have to be registered and have unique frame numbers. Just a thought that occurred to me.

 

If you want to have your bicycle marked up and registered, many police forces do this for free at cycling events. My race bikes are registered this way, so no need for the extra bureaucracy and cost of number plates.

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Ush | 7 years ago
3 likes

I would:

a) not read it  (page clicks from irritated cyclists are sold to advertisers which in turn drives more of the same articles)

b) realize that if the author is the same Brendan O'Neill from spiked-online then he's probably being irritatingly contrarian and trying to imagine what the "common man" feels about cycling

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Housecathst | 7 years ago
5 likes

I dream of waking up in a world where all daily mail readers have abducted by aliens never to return. 

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HurdyGurdy replied to Housecathst | 6 years ago
1 like

Housecathst wrote:

I dream of waking up in a world where all daily mail readers have abducted by aliens never to return. 

 

Aliens would realise they would polute their food chain and gene pool and would decide to stay far away from daily heil readers in their abductions

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LastBoyScout | 7 years ago
2 likes

The bit that got me was this:

"One crash on pavements or roads now takes place every day as the number of cyclists increases."

The inference being that it is purely down to the increasing number of cyclists and nothing whatsoever to do with increasing numbers of pedestrians, or the actions (or lack thereof) of the pedestrians.

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burtthebike replied to LastBoyScout | 7 years ago
2 likes

LastBoyScout wrote:

The bit that got me was this:

"One crash on pavements or roads now takes place every day as the number of cyclists increases."

The inference being that it is purely down to the increasing number of cyclists and nothing whatsoever to do with increasing numbers of pedestrians, or the actions (or lack thereof) of the pedestrians.

You're right of course, and any increase probably has more to do with texting and mobile using pedestrians than any action by cyclists.

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brooksby replied to burtthebike | 7 years ago
3 likes

burtthebike wrote:

LastBoyScout wrote:

The bit that got me was this:

"One crash on pavements or roads now takes place every day as the number of cyclists increases."

The inference being that it is purely down to the increasing number of cyclists and nothing whatsoever to do with increasing numbers of pedestrians, or the actions (or lack thereof) of the pedestrians.

You're right of course, and any increase probably has more to do with texting and mobile using pedestrians than any action by cyclists.

I'm probably just showing my age, but when did it become acceptable to walk through a (relatively) crowded pedestrian area looking down at your phone and assuming that everyone else would watch out for you and get out of your way?

You're all quite right that far too many pedestrians now seem to work on only their sense of hearing when crossing the road ("Can I hear a motor? If no, then walk out into the road").

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brooksby | 7 years ago
8 likes

I read that article, and the comments on it.  I think I may need to have a shower, now...

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davel | 7 years ago
3 likes

So, with 40x the incidents and 100x the deaths, when will see see proportionate demonisation of the real enemy of the pedestrian from the likes of the Fail? When they give up the fake news and alternative facts?

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burtthebike | 7 years ago
4 likes

Just posted this on the Mail web article:

    "Smug cyclists are far more likely to send your blood boiling then other motorists
    There's been a 50 per cent rise in pedestrian accidents in the last seven years
    A growing common sense among bikers is that cyclists should rule the road
    Their arrogant attitude isn't helped by officials who pander to them"

How fortunate that you didn't prejudge anything and reached your conclusions without a hint of bias.  Possibly the most misinformed, inaccurate and bizarre article in the Mail ever, and that's a pretty high bar.  Were you using the same alternative facts system as Trump?

The quote is from the start and it doesn't get any better.  Sheer unadulterated drivel, which will justify some drivers in their awful behaviour, totally irresponsible.

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OldRidgeback replied to burtthebike | 7 years ago
1 like

burtthebike wrote:

Just posted this on the Mail web article:

    "Smug cyclists are far more likely to send your blood boiling then other motorists
    There's been a 50 per cent rise in pedestrian accidents in the last seven years
    A growing common sense among bikers is that cyclists should rule the road
    Their arrogant attitude isn't helped by officials who pander to them"

How fortunate that you didn't prejudge anything and reached your conclusions without a hint of bias.  Possibly the most misinformed, inaccurate and bizarre article in the Mail ever, and that's a pretty high bar.  Were you using the same alternative facts system as Trump?

The quote is from the start and it doesn't get any better.  Sheer unadulterated drivel, which will justify some drivers in their awful behaviour, totally irresponsible.

 

The most misinformed, inaccurate and bizarre articles ever in the Daily Mail would've been those supporting Hitler and Mussolini prior to WWII.

But yes, the article you refer to is a load of cack.

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FatBoyW | 7 years ago
4 likes

It is truly shocking to see such rubbish being spouted by supposed real media - surely there should be a law that this type of hatred based on nothing at all could prevent/defend people from?

 

Disgusting and disturbing

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handlebarcam replied to FatBoyW | 7 years ago
4 likes

FatBoyW wrote:

It is truly shocking to see such rubbish being spouted by supposed real media - surely there should be a law that this type of hatred based on nothing at all could prevent/defend people from?

There are laws. None of them stopped the Daily Heil and its ilk from feeding their readers a steady diet of bullshit bendy bananas stories for the last few decades. Get ready, once Brexit is completed, labour and safety laws are gutted, and the transition to being a vassal state of Trump's America is safely under way, the reactionary press will be able to turn even more of their attention our way.

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burtthebike replied to handlebarcam | 7 years ago
2 likes

handlebarcam wrote:

FatBoyW wrote:

It is truly shocking to see such rubbish being spouted by supposed real media - surely there should be a law that this type of hatred based on nothing at all could prevent/defend people from?

There are laws.

There are indeed laws, and if cyclists were an ethnic group, I would suggest that this article would be found to be illegal.  Since the Daily Drivel can no longer attack people because of their skin colour, sex or sexual orientation, cyclists are a good substitute for these hate-filled bullies.

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cjwebb | 7 years ago
8 likes

Would be great to see Smartphone adoption and Pedestrian vs Cyclist incident to see if there is a correlation.

Most near misses I have with Peds (given how I don't cycle on footpaths but to use shared paths) is where the sleepwalker is not able to walk in a straight line and cannot hear my bell/call.

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I love my bike | 7 years ago
12 likes

From this morning:

The number of people in Britain caught driving while already banned has increased by 7.5%, according to figures obtained by BBC Radio 5 live.

Some 14,500 people were caught driving without a licence last year, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency data shows.

In total, 109,660 motorists were banned from driving, with the youngest being 12 and the oldest 94.

Puts drivers' stone throwing in perspective!

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EddyBerckx | 7 years ago
18 likes

They don't believe the shit they print, not for one second. They do however, happily take a wage for spreading misinformation and hatred.

 

Yes the owners/editors etc are awful people, but so are the so called journalists who agreed to write this.

 

Utter scum.

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