BICYCLE ACCIDENTS IN LINKOEPING 1974-1985. AN ANALYSIS AND A RECOMMENDATION FOR MEASURES TO BE TAKEN

The purpose of this report is to investigate the reason for the large increase in the number of bicycle accidents in linkoeping during the past 10 years. According to a statement from the town planning council, the number of accidents has doubled from 1974 to 1984. The main data available were the police reported accidents for this period, which give information on the place and time of the accident, state of the road, sex and age of the road users involved and also special circumstances which were significant. Some important facts from the analysis are that the largest increase is in single accidents and that for the major part accidents happen in the inner city. The urban parts of linkoeping have been classified according to their type of traffic environment and the safety of each area was calculated. This kind of calculation demands a measure of exposure e.g. How frequent biking is in the area. The exposure was calculated for four areas, mainly using traffic census and travel survey data. The exposure is then related to the number of accidents that occurred in the area. This is a method which is useful if you need to judge the effects of a physical alteration to a road junction. The behaviour of the road users is studied together with conflicts occurring both before and after the alteration. There is a connection between serious conflicts and accidents, which makes it possible to estimate the accident risk of the road junction after a relatively short observation time. (TRRL)