Elsevier

Journal of Transport & Health

Volume 6, September 2017, Pages 23-28
Journal of Transport & Health

How dangerous is cycling in New Zealand?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2017.02.008Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Fear of cycling is prevalent in car-dominated transport systems.

  • We estimate injury rates per typical exposure to a range of activities, including cycling.

  • Cycling on the road in New Zealand is safer than horse riding, snow sports and rugby.

  • Fear of cycling stems most likely from the marginal status of this mode of travel.

Abstract

We compared the injury risks of typical exposures to road cycling for transport with other common activities including do-it-yourself repairs (DIY) at home, horse riding, quad bike riding, rugby union and snow sports in New Zealand. Cycling on the road half an hour three times a week was similar to DIY twice a month and safer than horse riding 1.5 h twice a week (5-fold difference in injury claims), skiing half a day for 4–5 times per year (140-fold), and playing rugby once every 3 weeks (530-fold difference). In statistical terms, based on moderate injuries, cycling is less dangerous than many recreational and every day activities. We conclude that fear of cycling in car-dependent New Zealand arises mainly from other causes than risk of injury, associated with the marginal status of cyclists on the public road.

Introduction

The New Zealand transport system is dominated by the use of private motor vehicles, despite heavy costs including congestion, air pollution, greenhouse emissions and poor health outcomes (Howden-Chapman et al., 2010). Many trips by motor vehicle could be replaced by walking and cycling – almost 20% of household trips are less than 2 km, and almost half under 6 km (O’Fallon and Sullivan, 2009, Povey, 2010). However cycling in New Zealand accounts for less than 2% of total time spent in travelling on roads (Ministry of Transport, 2015a) and the reason most frequently given for not using bicycles is the fear of injury (Legge and Landtroop, 2013).This is broadly true in other countries also, especially for women (Broache, 2012, Garrard et al., 2008) Indeed, in the authors’ experience proposals to expand cycling sometimes elicit the response that modern roads are so dangerous it is simply irresponsible to encourage use of the bicycle.

How common is injury from road crashes among those travelling by bicycle in New Zealand? And how does the risk of such injuries compare with the risk of injury due to familiar recreational and day to day activities? Fear of a bad outcome, whatever the cause, has many explanations, amongst which the statistical likelihood of an event is just one contributor. But this does not mean, in our view, that comparisons of statistical risk are irrelevant to transport planning. We suggest that close examination of the statistics may assist policy-makers and the general public to interpret and respond to risk, especially when probability of harm can be related to typical or familiar exposures.

David Nutt attempted to illustrate the wide spread of risks associated with psychotropic drugs, both legal and illegal, by comparing the probability of serious ill-effects per standard dose with the risk of injury during a typical day of horse-riding (Nutt, 2009). We have taken this approach further, comparing the risk of injury of cycling on the road with that due to other common activities, based on what we characterise as familiar or typical exposures in New Zealand.

Section snippets

Methods

We calculated the risk of injury per typical exposure to an activity as the number of injuries per year divided by the number of people at risk and frequency of exposure. In this study we focused on moderately severe injuries sufficient to cause a visit to a hospital emergency room. We also calculated risk in terms of the number of claims in 2013 to the government-funded Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), which covers injury-related treatment and rehabilitation costs for everyone

Results

The overall patterns of risks of injuries and ACC claims were more or less similar in magnitude (Table 2).

A typical exposure to cycling (which we defined as a half hour trip 3 times a week) was 1.2 to 2.2 times safer than DIY, 1.3 to 5.3 times safer than horse riding (1.5 h twice a week), 60 to 140 times safer than skiing (half a day, 4–5 times per year), and 460 to 530 times safer than rugby (one game every three weeks) (Fig. 1).

Discussion

The figures we report here are not precise measures. They include many approximations and assumptions, and for this reason should be treated as no more than a guide to risk relativities. It is often difficult to quantify exposure to risk of injury since frequency and duration of activities are usually not well documented and are highly variable. For example, in many sports the player's competitive level influences both the amount played and rates of injury (Parkkari et al., 2004). Our

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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