Cyclists on the road

Cyclists are second only to motorcyclists in terms of the road users most disproportionately affected by road traffic accidents in Great Britain.

There were 17,550 reported accidents involving cyclists in 2018 (the most up-to-date figures currently available).

4,106 of these accidents involved serious injuries and 13,345 involving less severe injuries.

99 cyclists were killed on the roads, which represents a 2% decrease on 2017 despite a 2% increase in cycling traffic, though the figure has been at a relatively consistent level (between 99 and 115) since 2008.

The good news is, our roads are still, generally, pretty safe. The casualty rate per billion passenger miles for cyclists in Great Britain in 2018 was 5,272 casualties per billion miles cycled.

By comparison to other road users, this placed cyclists marginally behind motorcyclists (5,686) but significantly worse than pedestrians (1,657) and car drivers (223).

Sadly, while official statistics for 2020 will not be released until September 2021, provisional figures suggest that, during the lockdown period, there were over double the average deaths involving cyclists compared to previous years.

It is difficult to determine the cause without official statistics from the Department for Transport, but anecdotal evidence from police forces suggests that although there were fewer accidents, the accidents which did occur were more serious – generally as a result of excess speed.