{"id":113826774,"date":"2008-08-10T10:32:54","date_gmt":"2008-08-10T10:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=113826774"},"modified":"2008-08-10T10:32:54","modified_gmt":"2008-08-10T10:32:54","slug":"poor-behaviour-on-the-road-is-a-barrier-to-cycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=113826774","title":{"rendered":"Poor behaviour on the road is a barrier to cycling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>[Excerpts from Getting Australia Moving]<\/em><\/p>\n<p><b>\u201cWe\u2026have created an environment that<br \/>\nmakes it very convenient for people to<br \/>\nbe inactive, and subsequently develop<br \/>\nunhealthy behaviours. The only way to<br \/>\ncombat this is to make it equally<br \/>\nconvenient for people to become active,<br \/>\nand moreover, easier for them to inherit<br \/>\na better quality of life\u201d.<\/b><br \/>\n<br \/>Libby Darlison,<br \/>\nChair, Premiers Council on Active Living, NSW.<\/p>\n<p>SOME KEY POINTS:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The more cyclists there are,<br \/>\nthe safer it becomes.\n<\/li>\n<li>Motorists behaviour largely<br \/>\ncontrols the likelihood of collisions<br \/>\nwith people walking and cycling.\n<\/li>\n<li>Comparison of pedestrian and<br \/>\ncyclist collision frequencies<br \/>\nbetween communities and over<br \/>\ntime periods need to reflect the<br \/>\namount of walking and bicycling.\n<\/li>\n<li>Efforts to enhance pedestrian and<br \/>\ncyclist safety, including traffic<br \/>\nengineering and legal policies,<br \/>\nneed to be examined for their<br \/>\nability to modify motorist behavior.\n<\/li>\n<li>Policies that increase walking and<br \/>\ncycling appear to be an effective<br \/>\nroute to improving road safety.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>A Victorian Parliamentary inquiry into<br \/>\nviolence associated with motor vehicle<br \/>\nuse received a large number of<br \/>\nsubmissions from the cycling<br \/>\ncommunity reporting instances of road<br \/>\nviolence. Several submissions<br \/>\nsuggested that the presence of cyclists<br \/>\non the road was a trigger for road<br \/>\nviolence against cyclists (Drugs and<br \/>\nCrime Prevention Committee, 2005).<br \/>\nDriver knowledge of the road rules as<br \/>\nthey relate to people on bicycles has<br \/>\nbeen found to be generally poor. Only<br \/>\none in five (19%) of drivers knew that it<br \/>\nwas legal for cyclists to ride two<br \/>\nabreast, 44% that cyclists were<br \/>\nallowed to ride along a clearway, and<br \/>\n63% that cyclists were allowed to<br \/>\noccupy a whole lane (Rissel et al,<br \/>\n2002). Importantly, this lack of<br \/>\nknowledge regarding vital aspects of<br \/>\nthe road rules has been found to be<br \/>\nassociated with a negative attitude<br \/>\namongst motorists towards people on<br \/>\nbicycles (Rissel et al, 2002). The hostile<br \/>\nreception reported by bicyclists from<br \/>\nmotorists is a consistent theme when<br \/>\nsurveying people who ride bicycles.<br \/>\nDaley et al (2007) found that many<br \/>\noccasional and regular riders perceived<br \/>\nthe average Sydney driver as impatient<br \/>\nand intolerant. Some thought drivers<br \/>\nwere more likely to respect cyclist\u2019s<br \/>\nsafety and rights if bicycles were more<br \/>\nfrequently encountered on the roads<br \/>\nand this is supported by Robinson<br \/>\n(2005) who found that the more<br \/>\ncyclists there are, the safer it becomes.<br \/>\nRiders described altercations where<br \/>\nmotorists took out frustrations on<br \/>\nthem, often triggered by the motorist\u2019s<br \/>\nview that their journey was delayed by<br \/>\nthe rider. Riders felt there was a<br \/>\nskewed driver perception that a cyclist<br \/>\nheld up traffic, rather than seeing them<br \/>\nas a legitimate part of the traffic<br \/>\nsystem. It is this lack of<br \/>\nacknowledgement towards people on<br \/>\nbicycles that has been found by Greig<br \/>\n(2001) to be a significant deterrent<br \/>\ntowards regular cycling.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingpromotion.com.au\/images\/stories\/downloads\/CPFHlthRpr08V3prf1.pdf\">https:\/\/www.cyclingpromotion.com.au\/images\/stories\/downloads\/CPFHlthRpr08V3prf1.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>More quotes:<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Yet the perception of risk from cycle<br \/>\naccidents is often disproportionate to<br \/>\nthe actual risk. For instance, the<br \/>\nhospitalisation rate from cycling is<br \/>\nseven times lower than that of football,<br \/>\nper 100,000 participants. Moreover,<br \/>\nthe evidence clearly points to the fact<br \/>\nthat the more cyclists there are, the<br \/>\nsafer it becomes.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Approximately half of all Australian<br \/>\nadults are not meeting even the<br \/>\nmodest current national<br \/>\nrecommendations that:<br \/>\n<br \/><em>\u201cevery adult should accumulate half an<br \/>\nhour of moderate-intensity physical<br \/>\nactivity on at least 5 days per week\u201d<\/em><br \/>\n<br \/>(Commonwealth Health National PA guidelines,<br \/>\n1999; United States Surgeon General, 1996;<br \/>\nHaskell et al, 2007).<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Research has shown that the more often<br \/>\nyou cycle, the safer it is. In fact, by riding<br \/>\ntwice a week instead of once a week, the<br \/>\nchance of an accident halves, due to training<br \/>\nand increased awareness of cars (Transport<br \/>\nWestern Australia, 1996).<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Safety concerns were found to be<br \/>\namplified by aggressive motorist<br \/>\nbehaviour. Motor vehicle speed is both<br \/>\na perceived and actual safety hazard<br \/>\nfor vulnerable road users such as<br \/>\ncyclists. An accident at 64km\/h puts<br \/>\ncyclists at 17 times the risk of a fatality<br \/>\nthan if the vehicle was travelling at<br \/>\n32km\/h.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Frank et al (2004) have shown that each<br \/>\nadditional hour in a motor vehicle<br \/>\nincreases the chance of being obese by<br \/>\n6% &#8211; adjusting for socio-economic status.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>There is increasing evidence<br \/>\nthat higher levels of motor vehicle use<br \/>\nincrease the risk of road trauma.<br \/>\nStrategies that provide non-motorised<br \/>\ntransport options are increasingly<br \/>\nrecognised as an effective road safety<br \/>\nstrategy (Litman &amp; Fitzroy, 2005). In<br \/>\nfact, policies aimed at reducing car use<br \/>\ntypically result in around a 10%<br \/>\nreduction in vehicle kilometres travelled<br \/>\nand this could cut road trauma costs<br \/>\nby between &#36;850 million and &#36;1.7<br \/>\nbillion per year (Victoria Transport<br \/>\nPolicy Institute, 2007).<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Moreover, 66% of respondents in the<br \/>\n2005 survey of 2403 cyclists in Victoria<br \/>\nreported experiencing intentional<br \/>\nharassment from motor vehicle<br \/>\noccupants in the previous 12 months<br \/>\n(Garrard et al, 2006). The rate of cyclist<br \/>\nharassment was an average of 24<br \/>\nincidents every 12 months (approx<br \/>\nonce a fortnight). These disturbing<br \/>\nresults are supported by a smaller<br \/>\nsurvey of cyclists in South Australia<br \/>\n(Brisco, 2006).<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>oldId.20080810103254496<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Excerpts from Getting Australia Moving] \u201cWe\u2026have created an environment that makes it very convenient for people to be inactive, and subsequently develop unhealthy behaviours. The only way to combat this is to make it equally convenient for people to become active, and moreover, easier for them to inherit a better quality of life\u201d. Libby Darlison, &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=113826774\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Poor behaviour on the road is a barrier to cycling&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113826774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biking-elsewhere"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113826774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=113826774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113826774\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=113826774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=113826774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=113826774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}