A diary study of the risk perceptions of road users

Abstract

ABSTRACT Employing an in situ diary, 291 road users in Oxford (pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, car drivers and bus drivers) recorded details of all journeys made during 1 week and noted any incidents and near-misses which occurred on these journeys. On average, pedestrians and cyclists reported 0.18 incidents per mile travelled (one incident every 5.59 miles) and motorcyclists, car drivers and bus drivers reported 0.02 incidents per mile travelled (one incident every 41.67 miles). Analysis revealed mutual conflict between cyclists and buses, and irritation on behalf of pedestrians towards cyclists on pavements. Only 35% of incidents involving cyclists occurred at junctions and the paper discusses likely reasons for the discrepancy between this and the usual two-thirds figure quoted in official accident records. While the rate of incident perception reflected the vulnerability of pedestrians and cyclists, the amount of distress experienced did not, as bus drivers rated more of their incidents as distressing than did any other group. When incident reporting was compared to accident figures, the data suggest that car drivers were paying more attention to near-misses with the less vulnerable road users (i.e. those who could harm them) than they were to near-misses with more vulnerable road users (i.e. those whom they could harm).