Last year, RoSPA – The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents – in the UK, conducted a bicycle safety study that revealed some of the most dangerous locations for cyclists in the city of Birmingham.
Over a six-month period, 200 cyclists participated in the Cycle Smart Brum study. Their bicycles were equipped with See.Sense ACE Intelligent Rear Light sensors that gathered data – such as crash events, near-miss incidents, abrupt acceleration and deceleration, swerving, road conditions, average speeds, dwell time, and other feedback. The sensors operated in tandem with a smartphone app, which logged the data.
The study also looked at the reported road casualty data for cyclists, and compared this with the measurements collected by the See.Sense lights to establish the relationship between reported and unreported incidents.
David Walker, RoSPA’s Head of Road and Leisure Safety stated: “Cycling collisions are typically under-reported and therefore it’s vital that we understand more about their causes, so that road safety can be improved. Up until now, we’ve had to rely on ‘lag’ indicators such as the stats 19 report filed by police, usually when there has been a serious injury or death. This is why we are really excited about this research, which highlights how the swerving and braking data forms ‘lead-indicators’ that can help cities prioritise their safety interventions, or as a tool to analyse an area based on other indicating data, such as reports from cyclists.”
ROSPA used the crowd-sourced data to prepare the report Cycle Smart Brum which outlined the process and findings and proposed the system be used as an investigative tool to efficiently identify the most hazardous cycling areas in the city.
“Cities around the world are accelerating their plans to increase active travel in cities, yet one of the biggest challenges remains safety. Our technology, which can be used on privately owned bikes, as well as integrated into bike or scooter fleets, provides the deep data insights needed by cities to improve safety of riders and the design of cycle infrastructure. This project combined See.Sense technology with RoSPA’s expertise in road safety to create a tool which we hope can have real benefit to cities who want to take proactive steps to improve safety for cyclists, ” said Philip McAleese, CEO of See.Sense.