Andy01 wrote: ↑Mon May 20, 2024 5:50 pm
elantra wrote: ↑Mon May 20, 2024 4:25 pm
I presume that overpowered e-devices are going to become more prevalent and more intrusive in UK cities as they are here.
And then there is likely to be a lot more casualties resulting from these things being used in pedestrian environments.
Unfortunately, considerate cyclists are going to be caught up in the bad press from this.
My daughter lives in London and told me that it is illegal to ride anything (bicycle, scooter, escooter etc) on the footpath (or pavement as they call them there - unless the path is specifically designed for use by cyclists. They have to ride in the road (if no designated bike path), so presumably the likelihood of a cyclist hitting a pedestrian is lower ?
She also said that, in general, the cyclists and particularly escooter riders are fairly well behaved. She rode a pushbike for a while there, and then bought a small (300cc) motorbike - although she tries not to use it for commuting to work because there has already been one attempted theft.
I might guess that many (most ?) of the bicycle or escooter serious accidents (with peds involved) in Australia have occurred on paths, not on roads.
there is some dated but interesting research that predates ebikes/escooters etc's that covers pedestrian / cyclist collisions in Greater Melbourne pulling together 10years of hospital admission data and police collision reporting data:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30399525/
Across the VISU [hospital] data, there were 183 ED presentations and 273 admissions to hospital for pedestrian injuries as a result of being struck by a bicycle
This totals 456 ED presentations or admissions over 10 years. Less than 50 per year or around 1 per week across the whole of Greater Melbourne
Compares to 20 per week for vehicle / ped' collisions ...you can do your own modal share (without correction for kms travelled) and work out that although the number for cyclist / pedestrian collisions involving ED or hospital admission is low then adding in escooters/ebikes etc's into the mix without reallocating road space or other changes in road design is going to increase the number of collisions (somewhere I have piece...again pre electric age that looks at the impact of a sudden increase in bike lanes and then cycle trips in New York and yep the pedestrian collision rate increase follows)
The research did not investigate causality
The research did look at how the Police data could be used to establish the characteristics of cyclist – pedestrian collisions:
“When considering crash types each pedestrian crash was classified according to VicRoads’ codes for classifying accidents (DCA codes). Near-side (30.3%) and far-side (15.5%) collisions were prevalent amongst the police reported dataset, these collisions are associated with pedestrians crossing the road either from the left or right side of the cyclist. A further 6.4% of pedestrians were struck while boarding or alighting a vehicle. Notably, 15.5% of pedestrian injuries occurred while on a footpath, median or traffic island, locations where adult cyclists typically should not be riding a bicycle”
The problem with the crossing the road being a high cause of pedestrian / cyclist collisions is that it lacks detail on location... if the media and social media are to be believed these collisions would all be on signalized crossings
Going back to London I'll turn on pom mode and yes cycling on the footpath (pavement) is illegal and this generally well known what is in some ways odd is that going back to the police being given powers to issue on the spot fines around 20 years ago the Minister responsible for policing issued an instruction that this power is:
"not aimed at responsible cyclists who sometimes feel obliged to use the pavement out of fear of the traffic, and who show consideration to other pavement users when doing so" believe this ended up being considered as an instruction to Chief Constables (Police Chiefs) that pavement cycling should in effect be ignored...no idea if just England or whole of UK
Back to Victoria and its similar with the research quoted above including in its conclusion "note this data was for Victoria where cycling (with exceptions) on paths is illegal so interactions are low and some cyclists may be more cautious than would be if it was legal"
Believe there has been suggestions Federal Government may hold some State Funding unless cooperate on building/sharing more workable and consistent road collision data
edit no idea why if type bike lane it converts to a link