An incident reporting and learning system to understand cycling incident causation in Australia: A 12-month implementation of CRIT

Abstract

The benefits of cycling are well-recognised, however, safety remains a key barrier to cycling participation. The knowledge base on cyclist safety is limited as existing data systems are inadequate for understanding cycling incident causation and many incidents go unreported. This article presents the findings from a 12-month implementation of a new cyclist incident reporting and learning system—the Cyclist Reporting of Incidents Tool (CRIT). A total of 347 cyclists participated in the present study by providing their cycling participation data and cycling incident data, including their perceptions of the contributory factors involved in their crashes and near miss incidents. The analysis included 135 cycling incidents (22 crashes, 113 near miss incidents) from 1962 hours cycled. There was an overall incident rate of 68.8 incidents per 1000 hours cycled, with a crash rate of 11.2 and near miss incident rate of 57.5 incidents per 1000 hours cycled. Cyclists frequently reported that factors relating to road users (e.g., cyclist and driver behaviour), and equipment, environment, and surroundings (e.g., road and cyclist infrastructure) contributed to their cycling incidents. Factors relating to the broader transport system (e.g., infrastructure maintenance and repairs) were also reported. Finally, there were commonalities in the contributory factors reported for crashes and those for near miss incidents, highlighting the importance of understanding near miss incident causation in cyclist safety. We recommend that similar incident reporting and learning systems be implemented for all road users, especially for vulnerable road users whose incidents may not otherwise be captured in data systems.