Road Safety of Cyclists in the EU is highlighted at the Traffic Safety Basic Facts 2015 available at the European Road Safety Observatory of the European Commission. These Traffic Safety Basic Facts contain a comprehensive series of statistical tables with the latest available data from the CARE database of the European Commission. In 2013, 2.017 cyclists were killed in road accidents in the EU countries, making up 7,8% of the total number of road accident fatalities that year. The total number of bicycle fatalities in the EU countries decreased by 32% between 2004 and 2013. 

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has just published the PIN Flash Report ‘Making walking and cycling on Europe’s Roads Safer‘, with the contribution of NTUA.Around 138,400 pedestrians and cyclists lost their lives on EU roads between 2001 and 2013. Deaths of unprotected road users have been decreasing at a slower rate than those of vehicle occupants. In the last ten years deaths among pedestrians decreased by 41%, those among cyclists by 37% and those among power two wheeler (PTW) users by 34% compared to a 53% decrease for vehicle occupants. Since 2010 the reduction in the number of pedestrian and cyclist deaths has slowed down markedly. The safety of unprotected road users should therefore receive special attention from policymakers at the national and European levels. 

According to ELSTAT data, 29% of road fatalities are motorcycle riders, whereas 39% of road fatalities are passenger car occupants. Most car occupant fatalities occur outside built-up areas while most motorcycle and pedestrian fatalities occur inside built-up areas. 

The International Transport Forum’s Cycling Safety Working Group has recently released a Research Report on Cycling, Health and Safety. This report monitors international trends in cycling, safety and policy, and explores options that may help decision makers design safe environments for cycling. Key messages relate tostrategic goal-setting for cycling policy and managing crash risks while increasing health benefits. The report also discusses how to better capture crash and bicycle usage statistics. The safety impacts of a wide range of pro-cycling measures are examined in detail. 

A Workshop on Naturalistic Cycling Analysis organised by SAFER and Chalmers University of Technology, took place on 3rd of September in Gothenburg. The aim of this workshop was to discuss the potential of naturalistic cycling analysis to improve traffic safety. The workshop comprises of two parts: In the first part, current naturalistic cycling studies were presented, while in the second, different research questions were discussed and prioritized to suggest how naturalistic cycling analyses may tackle bicycle safety issues, such as single-bicycle accidents and conflicts at intersections.  

The International Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) published a leaflet on Cycling Safety. This leaflet presents preliminary 2012 data for more than a dozen selected transport indicators as well as total import and export values for ITF member countries. It also presents graphs and a short analysis of the transport activity in the global economic context highlighting the main changes over the previous year. 

A paper titled ‘Acceptability of rider assistive systems for powered two-wheelers‘ co-authored by V.Beanland, M.Lenné, E.Fuessl, M.Oberlader, S.Joshi, T.Bellet, A.Banet, L.Rößger, L.Leden, I.Spyropoulou, G.Yannis, H.Roebroeck, J.Carvalhais and G.Underwood is now published in Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour. This study aims to understand general and system-specific factors that are likely to influence acceptability of PTW assistive systems, including barriers that may prevent uptake and proper use of systems, through a large-scale survey of European riders. The survey was available in seven languages and attracted 6297 respondents. Respondents were frequent riders, who rode primarily for leisure purposes and had high awareness of assistive systems. Overall acceptability was low, but riders who perceive greater risk in riding display higher acceptability. In general, riders believe that existing safety equipment (e.g., helmets, protective clothing) is more reliable, provides greater resistance, and is considerably cheaper than more sophisticated assistive technology. 

Road Safety of Cyclists in the EU is highlighted at the Traffic Safety Basic Facts 2012 available at the Road Safety Knowledge System of the DACOTA project within the framework of the European Road Safety Observatory of the European Commission. In 2010, 1.994 pedal cyclists were killed in road traffic accidents in the EU countries, repersenting 6,8% of the total road traffic fatalities. The figure represents a 38% decrease during the decade 2001-2010.   

Around 2,100 cyclists were recorded as killed in traffic collisions in 2010 in the 24 EU countries where the data is available, representing 7.2% of the total number of road deaths recorded in those countries. Over the 2001-2010 decade the number of cyclist deaths was reduced by just 39%, compared to the 43% reduction in the overall number of road deaths observed in the same countries. BIKE PAL is a pan European project that aims to offer cyclists a package of information, resources, and awareness raising experiences to help them significantly improve their safety on the roads. In this report the safety ranking of EU countries is illustrated. 

The final SAFECYCLE conference took place in Vienna on 25 October 2012. The SAFECYCLE project, co-funded by the European Commission – DG MOVE, is investigating how ICT can be used to increase the safety of cyclists. ICT and ITS can increase the safety of cyclists. The results of the SAFECYCLE project will be presented (state of the art of ITS applications, SWOT analysis, CBA of selected applications, demonstration and deployment in European countries, recommendations, etc). This will be followed by a discussion with the project team and other experts about the results and the future of ITS and cycling in different sessions. All the conference presentations are available online. 

Road Safety of Cyclists in the EU is highlighted at the Traffic Safety Basic Facts 2011 recently released at the European Road Safety Observatory of the European Commission as prepared by the DACOTA project. In 2009, 2.109 pedal cyclists were killed in road traffic accidents in the EU countries, repersenting 6,6% of the total road traffic fatalities. The figure represents a 33% decrease during the decade 2000-2009. 

Road Safety of Cyclists in the EU is highlighted at the Traffic Safety Basic Facts 2010 recently released at the European Road Safety Observatory of the European Commission as prepared by the DACOTA project. In 2008, 2.440 pedal cyclists were killed in road traffic accidents in the EU countries, repersenting 6,5% of the total road traffic fatalities. The figure represents a 29% decrease during the decade 1999-2008.   

Car drivers are the largest road user group among road fatalities in all EU-23 countries. Together with car passengers they account for 50% of all fatalities. The proportion of motorcycle fatalities in Greece is 25%, the largest in all EU-23 countries.

In May 2011, ETSC published a PIN Flash concerning unprotected road users. At least 15,300 pedestrians, cyclists and motorcycle riders were killed in the EU in 2009, and 169,000 since 2001. Deaths among pedestrians and cyclists decreased by 34% between 2001 and 2009 and those among PTW riders by only 18%, compared with 39 % for car drivers.

Almost half of fatalities are passenger car occupants. Another 28% of fatalities are motorcycle riders. Most car occupant fatalities occur outside built-up areas while most motorcycle and pedestrian fatalities occur inside built-up areas. Accident severity is higher outside built-up areas for all transport modes. 

The road safety problem of Pedestrians and Cyclists has been highlighted at the recently released synthesis of the European Road Safety Observatory as prepared by the SafetyNet project. Walking and cycling are transport modes where relatively unprotected road users interact with traffic of high speed and mass, 20-40% of all journeys are travelled by cycle or on foot. Of all traffic fatalities in EU countries, the proportion of pedestrian fatalities is about 17% and the proportion of cyclist fatalities is about 6%.