Bicycling has become a popular way to commute in Iceland, as well as a way to exercise and enjoy the outdoors. Due to the broad group of cyclists, in terms of age composition and bicycle use, it can be tricky to identify the main problems this group of road users is facing. This article summarizes a deep analysis of road accidents amongst cyclists during the year 2014. The analysis is based on official registration of bicycle accidents from police reports.
Bicycling has become a popular way to commute in Iceland. Photo: Katrín Halldórsdóttir
In the year 2014, a study was released based on serious traffic accidents involving cyclists. The study showed a development of traffic accidents involving major injuries among cyclists that drew concerns and qualified for a need of further analysis. This led to the in-depth analysis of all traffic accidents involving a bicycle that occurred in the year 2014. In order to identify the main hazards that exist for cyclists, every police report was reviewed with the intention of recording the course of event and the main cause of the accident.
Results
In the year 2014 the total number of accidents involving a bicycle was 174. The data shows that no cyclists died in traffic accidents in the year 2014, but there were 32 cases in which a cyclist was seriously injured, 88 cases with minor injury and 54 cases of no injury.
Four categories of bicycle accidents were addressed; a collision between a bicycle and a car, single-bicycle crashes, a collision between two bicycles, and a collision between a pedestrian and a bicycle. The majority of the accidents belong to two of those categories; a collision between a bicycle and a car, 61%, and single-bicycle crash, 35%.
The report is not available in English.
Contact:
Katrín Halldórsdóttir
katrin.halldorsdottir@vegagerdin.is
IRCA, Iceland
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