Safe Drivers and Vehicles

Cherry Allan's picture

Road safety and cycling: overview

By Cherry Allan on 20 December 2011
'More' as well as 'safer' cycling can and should go hand in hand...
Road Safety and Cycling
Headline Messages: 
  • Cycling is essentially a safe activity, causing little risk either to cyclists themselves or to other road users. Moreover, there is good evidence that cyclists gain from ‘safety in numbers’, with cycling becoming safer as cycle use increases. 
  • However, fear of road traffic is a major deterrent, despite the health, environmental and other benefits of cycling. 61% of people surveyed on their attitudes agreed or strongly agreed that “it is too dangerous for me to cycle on the roads." (2011 British Social Attitudes Survey).
  • Actual cycle safety in the UK lags behind many of our continental neighbours, because of poorly designed roads and junctions, traffic volumes and speeds, irresponsible driving, and a legal system that fails to respond adequately to road danger. 
  • National and local government should therefore aim for ‘more’ as well as ‘safer’ cycling – the two aims can and should go hand in hand.
CTC View (formal statement of CTC's policy): 
  • Road safety strategies, nationally and locally, should recognise that:
    • Cycling is a safe activity, posing little risk either to cyclists themselves or to other road users
    • The health benefits of cycling far outweigh the risks involved 
    • Cycling gets safer the more cyclists there are: the ‘safety in numbers’ effect 
    • The aim of cycle safety policies and initiatives should be to encourage more as well as safer cycling, in order to maximise its health, environmental and other benefits, and to improve overall safety for all road users
  • Encouraging more as well as safer cycling involves tackling factors that deter cycle use. These include high traffic volumes and speeds; irresponsible driver behaviour; the unfriendly design of many roads and junctions; and lorries. 
  • The provision of cycle training to the ‘Bikeability’ national standard can also help people to cycle more, to ride more safely, and to feel safer and more confident while doing so. It can also help parents feel more confident about allowing their children to cycle. 
  • Increases in cyclist casualties may still mean cycle safety is improving if cycle use is increasing more steeply than cyclist casualties. Therefore targets and indicators for the effectiveness of road safety strategies should adopt ‘rate-based’ measures for improvements in cycle safety, e.g. cycle casualties (or fatal and serious injuries) per million km cycled, or per million trips. Simple casualty reduction targets should be avoided. 
  • ‘Perception-based’ indicators, which show whether public perceptions of cycle safety in a given area are getting better, can be used alongside ‘rate-based’ indicators, or as an interim substitute for the latter if necessary. 
  • Care should be taken to avoid cycle safety awareness campaigns that ‘dangerise’ cycling. These deter people from cycling or allowing their children to cycle and are counter-productive because they erode the ‘safety in numbers’ effect, as well as undermining the activity’s wider health and other benefits.
Download full campaigns briefing: 
application/pdf iconCycling and road safety: Overview
Publication Date: 
April 2012
Chris Peck's picture

The AA and BSM launch cycle awareness module for all driving instructors

By Chris Peck on 24 May 2013
CTC has welcomed the announcement by the AA and BSM that they will roll out a cycle awareness module to its driving instructors. The absence of cycle training for teenagers and the poor understanding of needs and rights of cyclists by some of the population has lead to aggressive behaviour.
BSM learner vehicle next to a cyclists in Cambridge

The driver awareness module would teach driving instructors about cyclists' needs, and also overturn some myths about cyclists' right to use the roads.

The AA and British School of Motoring (BSM) announcement is in large part thanks to the  President of the AA, Edmund King's personal backing of a more conciliatory culture of road use between cyclists and motorists.

RhiaWeston's picture

Letter delivered to Lord Advocate supporting sentence appeal

By RhiaWeston on 15 May 2013
On 14 May CTC’s Chief Executive, Gordon Seabright, CTC Scotland’s Councillor, Peter Hayman, and CTC’s Road Safety campaigner, Rhia Weston, met with relatives of Gary McCourt’s two victims; Audrey Fyfe and George Dalgity at the Crown Office in Edinburgh.
Letter delivered to the Lord Advocate supporting an appeal of the sentence

We met to present a letter to the Lord Advocate outlining why the ludicrous sentence handed down to McCourt for causing Mrs Fyfe’s death should be appealed. We also met with the Head of Appeals and Head of Criminal Justice Policy at the Crown Office to discuss concerns with the leniency of the sentence and the legally irrelevant comments made by the sheriff about helmets.

Chris Peck's picture

Minor win for cyclists as prosecution guidance shifts

By Chris Peck on 14 May 2013
In early May 2013 new guidance from the Crown Prosecution Service on prosecuting acts of bad driving was published. It includes a potentially important addition in determining what should be charged as 'dangerous' rather than 'careless' driving.
The driver of this car was charged with 'careless driving'

One of the issues that CTC has been concerned about for years has been the downgrading of cases of bad driving from 'dangerous' to 'careless' driving.

Now a change in the prosecution guidance to explicitly mention vulnerable road users may help reduce this shift from dangerous to careless.

Chris Peck's picture

Demand a proper sentence for driver who killed twice

By Chris Peck on 10 May 2013
3 May 2013
CTC has joined with the family of Audrey Fyfe to challenge the scandalous sentence handed down to Gary McCourt on 3 May. McCourt was sentenced to 300 hours of community service and a five-year driving ban for causing death by careless driving
Audrey Fyfe and her daughter Aileen Brown

Mrs Fyfe was a mother and a wife and much valued member of CTC Scotland. She was hit by McCourt while riding her bike near her home in Edinburgh in August 2011.

She was the second person to have died because of McCourt's driving - the first, another cyclist, George Dalgity, was killed in 1985.

Mrs Fyfe’s daughters Aileen Brown and Linda Hamilton had approached CTC to help them in their campaign to achieve justice. At the very least they believe McCourt should be subject to a  lifetime driving ban.

Chris Peck's picture

Pedro Delgado joins battle against helmet compulsion in Spain

By Chris Peck on 29 April 2013
1988 Tour de France champion Pedro Delgado has walked out of a meeting with María Segui, the director of the national traffic authority (DGT), in protest at the Government's plan to force cyclists in urban areas in Spain to wear helmets.
Delgado won the 1988 Tour de France (Photo: Numerius, Flickr)

Pedro Delgado told María Seguí that he was opposed to mandatory helmet legislation because it would discourage people from cycling.

19 city councils - including Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Zaragoza, and Bilbao - have now joined Spanish cycling organisations in public opposition to the proposed ban on cycling without helmets. Last week, the national consumers' organisation (OCU) also announced that it opposed mandatory cycle helmets.

Chris Peck's picture

Get Britain Cycling report recommends £10 per head, per year funding for cycling

By Chris Peck on 23 April 2013
Six weeks of oral evidence, hundreds of written pages, and the report is out. CTC welcomes its publication and urges the Government to implement its 18 recommendations
Chris Boardman, MP Julian Huppert, Dr Sarah Wollaston and Ian Austin

CTC, the national cycling charity, is calling on David Cameron to act on the report, which calls for 10 per cent of journeys in Britain to be made by cycle by 2025 – the current figure is less than 2 per cent.

It has also called for central government spending of at least £10 per head of population per year to boost cycle use, increasing as cycle use rises. London has recently announced plans to spend £12.50 per person per year over the next 10 years, whilst the Dutch are spending around £24 per person per year.

Cherry Allan's picture

Cycle lawyers campaign for compensation changes

By Cherry Allan on 18 April 2013
Cycle Law Scotland, a firm that deals with cyclists' injury claims, has launched a Road Share campaign to change the law relating to compensation.
Cyclist on a road

If the campaign is successful, cyclists and pedestrians would receive compensation automatically and promptly for injuries/damage sustained in a crash with a motor vehicle.

At present, because injured cyclists or pedestrians are not compensated automatically, they are all too often forced to fight for it  – a process that is often protracted, expensive and particularly difficult for those who need financial help with treatment and care. It is also burdensome for the courts.

RhiaWeston's picture

PCCs respond to the 'Prioritise this' campaign

By RhiaWeston on 15 April 2013
In February CTC set up the ‘Prioritise this!’ campaign, which asked cyclists to email their newly elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and call on them to prioritise road safety in their imminent Police and Crime Plans for 2013-2016. Thank you to all 521 of you who took action.
Cyclists' safety should be prioritised by police

Common themes emerged from the PCCs’ responses such as:

Cherry Allan's picture

Traffic police and other enforcement agencies

By Cherry Allan on 3 April 2013
More effective traffic policing is crucial for cyclists, and also helps tackle one of the biggest fears that many others have about taking up cycling in the first place - namely, bad driving...
Cyclist and police car
Headline Messages: 
  • In the interests of road safety and traffic law enforcement, there should be more traffic police, well designed incident reporting systems and the commitment to investigate all collisions thoroughly, particularly those involving non-motorised users.
  • The Health and Safety Executive and other enforcement agencies with road safety responsibilities should prioritise these more highly and be adequately resourced to do so.
CTC View (formal statement of CTC's policy): 
  • Investing in roads policing is highly effective, not only for promoting road safety, but also in tackling other forms of crime. It should be prioritised by national government and included in all overarching policing strategies and plans (e.g. the Strategic Priority Requirement in England and Wales). This would strengthen the case for individual police forces throughout the UK and Police and Crime Commissioners (England and Wales) to give it the priority it deserves.   
  • Police and Crime Commissioners and local authority crime reduction/safety partnerships must prioritise speeding, dangerous driving and other road traffic offences as key issues to address.
  • The police should always refer serious injury collisions up to the prosecution service for a charging decision, not just those that result in a fatality. If they do not charge or decide not to refer the case, the police should be required to explain their decision systematically.
  • The police should be trained so that they understand the practical and legal issues facing cyclists and other non-motorised users.
  • Wherever possible, the police should respond to any reported collision involving a cyclist or pedestrian by:
    • Attending  the scene, taking statements and gathering evidence from witnesses
    • Investigating incidents that result in severe injury as thoroughly as those that result in death - ACPO’s Road Death Investigation Manual should cover serious as well as fatal injuries and be renamed The Road Crash Investigation Manual.
    • Investigating reports of seriously bad or aggressive driving even when no injury occurs and allocating sufficient resources to do so – after all, such drivers are often involved in other criminal activity
    • Investigating and where possible charging motorists who fail to stop with ‘leaving the scene of the accident’.
  • The police should facilitate collision and ‘near miss’ reporting (e.g. via online systems).
  • The victims of road crashes involving unlawful driving should be entitled to the same support services that other victims of crime receive.
  • The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) should take a more proactive line over work-related road safety and should receive adequate funds to do so.
Download full campaigns briefing: 
application/pdf iconTraffic policing and other enforcement agencies
Publication Date: 
April 2013
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