All health & safety issues, inc. diet & lifestyle; also helmets
PEDESTRIANS, CYCLISTS and bikers in the Dublin area are to be targeted by Gardaí as part of a new high-profile road safety campaign.
The “casualty reduction” plan, launched yesterday, will see “the full rigours of the law” applied to cyclists who go through red lights, cycle on footpaths or travel the wrong way on a one-way street facing increased levels of Garda enforcement.
With 13 cyclists killed in September so far in Britain, Rob Penn and Gerhard Weiss debate whether our roads are too risky to brave on two wheels. Read article
People have always wanted to reach destinations quickly, safely and efficiently. But as the UK transport environment has become increasingly complex, transport’s impact on health has become unnecessarily harmful – to the point where it is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality.
Read article | Download full report
Nothing new here for likely readers of this blog, but good to see the BMA flying the flag.
… and another IT article on lack of exercise
Some situations seem far more dangerous to us than others, but the perceived risk is often quite far from the truth, writes NIAMH DORNAN … If we look at the numbers only, a different picture can emerge. The lifetime risk of dying in an air crash is 1 in 7,178, according to the National Safety Council of America. This is far lower than the 1 in 98 chance of dying in a car crash or the 1 in 701 chance of being killed as a pedestrian. Cyclists face a 1 in 4,381 chance of dying on their bicycles over their lifetime. Read article
Survey finds that just 10% use their bikes as their main form of transport, but 35% would switch to cycling if roads were less dangerous. Read article
It would be surprising if the perception in Ireland was much different
A white ghost bicycle parked at Kings Cross in London
A tiny proportion of accidents involving cyclists are caused by riders jumping red lights or stop signs, or failing to wear high-visibility clothing and use lights, a government-commissioned study has discovered. Read article
Cyclists’ lobby group CTC said the report needed to focus on driver behaviour rather than issues such as cyclists wearing helmets.
That is the message coming out of a new study which suggests protective headgear is useless in the event of a serious accident. ‘Looking at evidence, it does not matter if people are wearing a helmet or not, any serious accident on a bike is likely to kill them,’ said Dr Carwyn Hooper, from St George’s University of London. Read article
The majority of Britons believe it remains unsafe to cycle on urban roads and want major safety measures such as wholesale 20mph speed limits and more cycle lanes, according to an opinion poll.
The research, carried out by the national cycling and green travel charity Sustrans, found that 56% of people felt cycling on roads in built-up areas was not safe, and fewer than 20% regularly did this. Read more