Same pattern, different day. This pattern shows up any time crash types can be cross-referenced with cyclist age.

The original Cross study, of the reported accidents in Santa Barbara, CA in 1974, is particularly illustrative of this pattern. While child cycling was much more prevalent then, and the average age of the cycling population was way lower than it is today, we see the same kind of at-fault distribution based on the age of the cyclist.




"Figure 15 shows the cumulative distribution of accidents as a function of age and accident type. This figure shows that the age distribution varies widely from accident type to accident type, and furthermore, shows that the distributions tend to fall into two distinct groups. It will be noted that all of the accidents in which the critical maneuver was performed by the bicyclists are clustered together, whereas, all of the accidents in which the critical maneuver was performed by the motorists are also closely clustered."

The S.B. Cross study can be viewed on Forester's website:

http://www.johnforester.com/Articles/Safety/Cross01.htm