In support of our cycling and visibility campaign a review has been undertaken looking at crashes involving cyclists in Berkshire during the autumn months using a professional collision analysis system, MAST Online. The analysis looks at some key features of crashes and includes time of day, day vs night crashes, junction types, rural vs urban locations and comparisons to other months of the year.
The results are only based on reported incidents which means that there are many, many more crashes that aren’t included but the broad trends would be expected to be the same.
The first chart show the crashes involving cyclists that happen throughout the year with some noticeable dips in winter as well as August. This indicates that cycling levels may well remain fairly static during all but the most inclement months, and the school holidays. No cycle use data is available unfortunately. As the days become shorter more crashes are reported during hours of darkness.
These trends could indicate that cycling in Berkshire is more for commuting, rather than leisure purposes and this is confirmed in the second chart which looks at the time of day analysis in the autumn months. Distinct peaks in the morning and evening rush-hours can be seen in the analysis with a short spike in the morning between 8 and 9 am.
Night-time crashes in Autumn tend to be more common in urban areas, often with street lighting. Over a fifth (21%) of all crashes happen during darkness compared to only 14% in rural locations.
The final review looks at where crashes are likely to take place and this show that overwhelmingly junctions are a danger hotspot. Only 15% of crashes involving cyclists in the autumn months happen when the rider is progressing straight along the road with 66% happening at give way junctions.
