Mapped: the UK’s road cycling blackspots
How perilous is it to cycle where you live? Here’s a map showing Department for Transport data of all the road accidents in 2007 involving cyclists where injuries were reported to the police. There were just over 16,000 accidents in total - about 46 per day. Thanks to the raw data released by Direct Gov, we were able to learn the grid reference for each - presumably thanks to the police report. We turned these into latitude/longitude co-ordinates using a program one of our coders wrote, which we then plotted on a map.
The result is a richly detailed - and hopefully educational - portrait of the nation’s cycling accidents. Zoom in and you can literally see the placemarks for individual accidents: in Richmond Park, in London, there were 8, all around the main entrances. The Isle of Skye escaped without any. The majority, as you might guess, were concentrated in densely populated urban areas.
What will be interesting is to see whether there were less accidents on cycle paths, or to what extent accidents are more likely to happen at street corners than at other places, or whether towns with fewer accidents simply have less cyclists or took other steps to guard against cyclists getting hurt: all things we’re working on. In the meantime, here’s what we’ve done so far for you to explore.
UPDATE: Thanks to those who pointed out that the accident rate in Northern Ireland seems impossibly low. We’ve asked the Department for Transport to clarify.
UPDATE 2: I’ve increased the zoom level one extra point (it renders over 100,000 tiles at this level). For more detail see Tom Taylor’s blog which has KML files which can be viewed in Google Earth. Also, there may be slight errors in the positions of points due to the complex conversion between OS grid references and latitude/longitude points required for Google map.
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41 Responses to “Mapped: the UK’s road cycling blackspots”
I live in Lancaster, and its centre is also known as “the circle of death”. Apparently it was a cycling demonstration town over the past few years, but that’s passed by virtually unnoticed!
What will be interesting is to see whether there were less accidents on cycle paths,……………This should read FEWER accidents! Please correct. It looks stupid to have such a basic grammar error. You got it right a few lines further but make then the same mistake again with less cyclists.This should be FEWER cyclists.
I’m particularly interested in the accident that happened a mile out from Leith Docks in the Firth of Forth…
It’s a slightly weird feeling looking at the map and thinking “that one’s me!”
Oh, when you wrote “the UK’s road cycling blackspots”, I thought you meant the places where there were most cyclists on the road - silly me!
Good to see Northern Ireland is so cycle safe. Or do you, perhaps, not actually mean ‘the UK’ when you say it?
I live in Stanwick NN9 6PX and cycle regularly there. Both the posted accidents are at renowned dodgy junctions. I never cross the A45 via a seriously busy roundabout on a dual carriageway and we are supposed to be getting a foot bridge. There are signs posted telling cyclists not to use the roundabout but to walk across the dual carriageway still dodgy but better than using the roundabout.I have had a near miss at the other site only 50m from my front door at the triangle and I imagine the accident was for similar reason as my near miss. A dickhead in a car on the phone not looking and zooming out in front of me.
Gosh, there’s nothing more irritating than an aggressive pedant. Oi, Adrian - use FEWER capitals. GOT THAT? make your point in a LESS forceful manner by using FEWER capitals. I bet you’ve got a big nose and speak in a stupid whiny voice.
Perhaps Thomas would be so goodey as to give us his location, to mark as another “avoid” area.
Seriously, does he think his life would be better if all the cyclists that are clearly getting in his way were all driving a car each?
Good overview as a start though it’d be far me useful if you could zoom into the actual street level.
Yeah, Mike, I bet Adrian beats his wife too! And picks his nose and eats it! And keeps a photo of Gordon Brown on his mantelpiece!
Perhaps one thing more irritating than an aggressive pedant is someone who overreacts to one, and throws in a few pointless and unjustifiable personal insults into the bargain.
We could do with MORE relevant comments on the issue at hand (people getting killed and injured, remember?) and FEWER pointless posts.
I second Nick (#10): is it possible for the admins to get this map to zoom in further, as in dense urban areas it’s a bit tricky to work out exactly where accidents have occurred
An interesting map, but can it zoom to higher resolution?
It would be interesting to see how many of these site coincide with shopping centres, how many are in areas where two lanes merge etc.
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This is really interesting. I have a mixed commute which includes cycling. My personal experience tells me that the residential roads near my house are particularly dangerous. Looking at the map, I can see the danger spots, and these are the very same areas I have to take a more defensive position in the road - i.e. bang in the middle to stop overly-aggressive drivers trying to overtake where there isn’t enough room to do so. These happen to be “traffic calming” areas. My positioning can lead ignorant drivers into thinking I’m being inconsiderate and can make them even more aggressive and lead to very dangerous overtaking manouvres. It is no surprise to me that so many people in my area ride on the pavements.
I happen to also be an advanced driver and motorcyclist with 20 years experience and no accidents on my record, so I’m pretty sure I know what I’m talking about.
So - what to do with this information? I feel like I should write to the local council but I feel they are simply introducing “traffic calming” measures without any real analysis or thought about how it affects all road users.
OneLessCar,
“onecarfewer” shurely?
This is a great map but can I add to the plea for a greater level of zoom please! In London the dots seem tantalisingly close to being genuinely useful without quite fulfilling their pointy promise.
Even so it’s clear that some major roads are safer than others although that might just be because no one chooses to cycle on them (like the North Circular)!
Those wanting a higher level of zoom can download the files as KML from Tom Taylor’s blog and view them in Google maps, or any other KML-aware tool.
I’d love to be able to zoom in further…to be able to see the minor roads and around town a bit more. I’ve got 7 on a 3.5 mile commute, but only 2 on my 15 mile commute
Some roads look safe but are only so because no-one dares cycle there - like the A420 from Swindon to Oxford, a road which, as a cyclist of 30 years’ experience, I avoid like the plague.
The spots I know come as no surprise as they’re all at places I take extra care. But I can’t see cyclepath data being even remotely accurate - even a lot of road accidents caused by third parties go unreported as people know there’s no chance of a prosecution. Who’s going to report an accident caused by say, a dog or an anonymous pedestrian?
@Mike,I trust you meant to write ‘ make’ at the beginning of a sentence with a capital ‘M’. I do have a big nose, most jews have.Thank you for reminding me. I am a cyclist who cycles in excess of 15 miles every day in London ( old fashioned ’sit up and beg’ bike)and I do stop for red traffic lights.
Why aren’t fatalities reflected in the data? It’s obvious that the cities will have the concentration of minor incidents, but as a cyclist I would want to know the real danger roads where cyclists have been killed or seriously injured.
For Instance
Black Dot - Fatality.
Red Dot - Serious Incident.
Pink Dot - Minor Incident.
Well there seems to be some big gaps in the data in our town looking at the maps it fails mark the 2 fatal accidents on one street… Where as one spot i know to be caused by some idiot on a bike coming off the pavement into the path of a car….
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Great work. But please refer to these as collisions, not ‘accidents’. Accidents are defined as “an unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury” and “an event that happens by chance or that is without apparent or deliberate cause.”
Many of these incidents will have had a cause and are not by chance (e.g. drink driving, driving without care and attention, driving while talking on a mobile phone). In certain cases the driver will have been convicted of an offense. It is not therefore an ‘accident’, is it?
The correct and non-value laden term is collision. Please use this term in future.
But it’s still a great map. Keep up the good work!
Some years ago I was a frequent cyclist through Richmond Park.
It seemed no journey could be completed without at least one near miss. The closest I came to a trip to A & E was caused by a policeman with his speed gun hiding in the bushes next to a straight piece of downhill road. When the car over-taking me saw the policeman he immediately slowed, and then had to move left to avoid on-coming traffic. I stopped and challenged the policeman. I explained how his action nearly caused an accident, I also explained that a speeding car on a straight piece of road, with no junctions and no adjacent pedestrians represented no danger. I advised him to move himself and his speed gun to any one of the entrances where though he would certainly issue less speeding tickets he might improve road safety. I complained to my MP. She promised to take it up with the police.
So if the entrances to Richmond Park are still accident black spots it is because the police can’t be bothered to have it any other way.
Like ALL stats these are of little use. Several of the cycle ‘road accidents’ I submitted whilst a Police Officer were recorded because according to the rules, if someone falls over when in control of a cycle it counts, even a small child and a grazed knee. Like deaths in cars the reporting becomes more important than the cause.
my friend was killed by a lorry crushing her on Morning Lane Hackney the other year..complaints followed..press contacted..a year later another fatality in the same place.no change of road policy….please avoid this at all times….
Following on from PB, no 15. My commute is busily being “calmed” by the council who have put a large island in the middle of the road thus making it much narrower. So for this section I will now be riding in primary position to prevent being squeezed by overtaing cars and no doubt creating rather less calmness than the council imagines!
The UK government, police ‘et al’ are currently being complacent about road deaths, as this media article shows re: Great Britain slipping down the European road safety table.
The UK once had roads that were the safer than any of our European neighbours. This is no longer the case – and that problem needs tackling now.
mark.
Barry, do police really attend incidents where children fall over and graze their knees?
Some years ago, a friend of mine was knocked off his bike at a junction by a car and was lucky enough not to need to be taken to A&E. The driver was not keen to have the “incident” registered as an accident (probably something to do with a no claims bonus) and so the police - who attended the incident - decided not to register it as an acccident. As I am also this person’s local Councillor I did complain on his behalf - to no avail. Barry may have assiduously reported cycle accidents, but I am sure there are many policemen out there who don’t think we deserve the same level of protection as drivers do….
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Forgive me for stating the obvious, but as comparative data is this not a bit daft? - ie cycling South Gloucestershire could be claimed as being a safe haven in comparison to London if judged only by cycle accident data. But surely there are more dots in London (and all the big cities) because there are more people, busier roads and more cyclists? (and therefore, per capita, there might be fewer cycling accidents) - cycling in South Glos might be ’safer’ when in fact the case might be that hardly anyone cycles there at all!
As with all statistics, I take this with a strong pinch of salt.
It would be nice to see the cycle lanes drawn on to the map. It would also be great to have a collaborative map where people involved in the accidents or witnesses could give their account of what caused them.
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The red pins don’t work at larger scales, leastways not for Stevenage.
The results for Stevenage are welcome but people do indeed need to know about local cicumstances that may affect accident levels. Stevenage has a well used (if not well maintained) network of cycle paths. One of the few really cycle-friendly towns.
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re:Sim Dagegr
This resource needs some interpreting. One road - Marston Road in Oxford shows a string of accidents along the cycle path. This is not surprising since cars attempt to cross this path without looking out for cyclists (or very often deliberately ignoring them and crossing anyway). These will be more likely to be reported to the police because the transgression is so blatant. But there is no indication of the severity of the accident.
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