Bicycle crash casualties in a highly motorized city

• Published in: Accident analysis and prevention Vol. 42; no. 6; pp. 1902 - 1907
• Main Authors: Loo, Becky P.Y., Tsui, K.L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2010
• Subjects: Accidents, Traffic - mortality; Accidents, Traffic - statistics & numerical data; Adult; Bicycle crashes; Bicycling - injuries; Cause of Death; Chi-Square Distribution; City Planning; Cross-Sectional Studies; Crowding; Cyclists; Databases, Factual - statistics & numerical data; Demography; Epidemiological study; Female; Hong Kong; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Motor Vehicles; Risk Factors; Safety; Spatial characteristics; Statistical analysis; Urban Population - statistics & numerical data; Wounds and Injuries - epidemiology; Wounds and Injuries - mortality; Wounds and Injuries - prevention & control; Hong Kong; China, People's Rep., Hong Kong; Bicycle crashes; Statistical analysis; Cyclists; Spatial characteristics; Epidemiological study
• ISSN: 0001-4575; 1879-2057
• DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2010.05.011

The characteristics of bicycle crashes in cities where bicycles are a minor transport mode have received little attention in road safety research. However, the characteristics of these injury-inflicting bicycle crashes are expected to be very different from those happening in cities where cycling is generally considered as one of the major transport modes. Specifically, this study has the following three objectives: (1) to conduct the first scientific spatial analysis of bicycle crashes in Hong Kong; (2) to analyze the circumstances leading to bicycle crashes; and (3) to conduct an epidemiological study on injury patterns of cyclist casualties. Various spatial and statistical tools, including buffer analysis, chi-square tests, analysis-of-variance and binary logistic regression, are used to analyze the bicycle crashes in Hong Kong from 2005-2007. An important finding of this paper is that the bicycle safety problem has a clear spatial dimension. The crash circumstances in different parts of the city differed systematically. Furthermore, the findings suggest that initiatives to develop new cycle tracks and to encourage bicycles as a transport mode must be planned carefully with new infrastructure and policies to ensure the safety of cyclists.