classic33
Leg End Member
Cycling Britain
"Cycling in Britain is often perceived as dangerous, but how much have the risks of riding a bike changed, and how do they compare with driving a car, asks statistician Jamie Jenkins.
There has been a huge fall in the number of deaths among cyclists in the past 80 years.
The figure reached its peak in 1934, when 1,536 pedal cyclists died in Great Britain. Last year there were 109 fatalities, according to the Department for Transport (DFT), and it's important to remember that there were considerably fewer people living in the country 80 years ago.
But before we think that 1934 was a bad year for cycling, remember that despite the lower population there are likely to have been far more cyclists. Owning a motor vehicle was much rarer and thus cycling as a primary means of transport would have been more common.
We do not know exactly how many cycle journeys there were in 1934, but the number of licensed cars on the road can give us some indication. In 1934 there were fewer than two million cars, while today there are about 28 million licensed cars. Now it is more common for a cyclist to also be a car driver and share their journeys between the two modes of travel.
Evidence presented in parliament in the 1930s suggested there were between 10 and 12 million cyclists, notes Carlton Reid, author of Roads Were Not Built For Cars. And they would have done more journeys than an equivalent 10 to 12 million cyclists in 2013."
"Cycling in Britain is often perceived as dangerous, but how much have the risks of riding a bike changed, and how do they compare with driving a car, asks statistician Jamie Jenkins.
There has been a huge fall in the number of deaths among cyclists in the past 80 years.
The figure reached its peak in 1934, when 1,536 pedal cyclists died in Great Britain. Last year there were 109 fatalities, according to the Department for Transport (DFT), and it's important to remember that there were considerably fewer people living in the country 80 years ago.
But before we think that 1934 was a bad year for cycling, remember that despite the lower population there are likely to have been far more cyclists. Owning a motor vehicle was much rarer and thus cycling as a primary means of transport would have been more common.
We do not know exactly how many cycle journeys there were in 1934, but the number of licensed cars on the road can give us some indication. In 1934 there were fewer than two million cars, while today there are about 28 million licensed cars. Now it is more common for a cyclist to also be a car driver and share their journeys between the two modes of travel.
Evidence presented in parliament in the 1930s suggested there were between 10 and 12 million cyclists, notes Carlton Reid, author of Roads Were Not Built For Cars. And they would have done more journeys than an equivalent 10 to 12 million cyclists in 2013."
