Advocacy & Safety - Interesting article on collisions

Hi,
Apologies is that has already been posted as this is an old article that has been sitting on my desk for a while now. Most interesting for me is that is contains some statistics that I have been wanting for a while.

The full article is found here...
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23587545-27197,00.html

But a bit of a teaser and maybe my favourite part...
"Looking specifically at crashes involving adult cyclists, the other vehicle was at fault in 72.4 per cent of bicycle-vehicle collisions.

Most of these collisions were a result of the vehicle's failure to give way, or lack of attention.:

There are more numbers there but I will let you read it as I think it's a pretty good summation of how things stand.

I wonder:

Amy Schramm
http://www.carrsq.qut.edu.au/staff/staffprofile.jsp?id=321
http://cyclingresults.net/2007/08/31/trek-ladies-series-continues-excellent-racing/
http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos.php?id=/photos/2007/aug07/aug26trek/Round4BGradePodium

I dunno just kind of instantly made me go "I wonder how unbiased this 'report' is". Though the report seems to have lots of good information, just something to keep in mind.

I wonder:

http://www.carrsq.qut.edu.au/staff/staffprofile.jsp?id=321
http://cyclingresults.net/2007/08/31/trek-ladies-series-continues-excellent-racing/
http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos.php?id=/photos/2007/aug07/aug26trek/Round4BGradePodium

I dunno just kind of instantly made me go "I wonder how unbiased this 'report' is". Though the report seems to have lots of good information, just something to keep in mind.

And any other report you have ever read??? All written by folks that probably feel bikes don't belong on the road. Is that "unbiased?"

There's a lot of crash data out there - the us government has its emergency room reporting system -which I forget the acrynom for- the police reports get crunched, but most crash statistics are commonly faulted for grouping all ages of cyclists togther when rendering statistics.

Parsing down the data and uncovering the motorist is at fault in nearly three quarters of adult cyclist crashes?

I'll buy it.

There's a lot of crash data out there - the us government has its emergency room reporting system -which I forget the acrynom for- the police reports get crunched, but most crash statistics are commonly faulted for grouping all ages of cyclists togther when rendering statistics.

Parsing down the data and uncovering the motorist is at fault in nearly three quarters of adult cyclist crashes?

I'll buy it.

That's one of the highest percentages I've seen, but I'll also buy it for whatever time slice and particular study area they're referring to, which, from reading the article, is not exactly clear. In the US the number is lower, but still a clear majority when adults are separated from kids in the stats.

Robert

An old Honolulu study, broken down for adult cyclist, indicated motorist at fault 70% of the time.

Throw in all age groups and the number dropped to something around 40%.

Other adult cyclist studies tend to also show that the motorist is more often at fault... I think the lowest percentage I saw was in the 50's.

But this is exactly why there is a debate over the reports/writings by John Forester... who "supposedly" used data that included both children and adults and lumped skinned knees in with critical injuries. I have no proof of that... so take my comments with a grain of salt.

Are there any reputable studies regarding adult cyclists?

And any other report you have ever read??? All written by folks that probably feel bikes don't belong on the road. Is that "unbiased?"
Nope, just was curious and did some digging, it's just good to always keep in mind where your information comes from and how it can be skewed. As I said regardless it has some good information.

Not to mention the "at fault" statistic really makes me wonder, being as lots of people here complain about society not treating them fairly at the hands of accidents when it comes to responsibility, this statistic says otherwise. Of course I'll take the statistics over people's opinions any day, even if it's easy to skew statistics.

However 72% seems high, but then again this isn't the US, and theres a lot more cycling over there per capita and such which probably helps educate cyclists as to not do the stupid **** you see so much in America.