Analysis of Reasons of Accidents Between Cyclists and Public Transport Vehicles in Cities

Abstract

In European cities, a bicycle is now or is systematically becoming an equal means of transport. Unfortunately, the growth of bicycle traffic is associated with an increase in the number of accidents involving cyclists. Some of these accidents, are events with cyclists and public transport vehicles - and therefore means of transport, which together are to constitute a serious alternative to a car. Although the share of these kind of accidents is relatively small - each such event has a very negative impact on the perception of ecological forms of transport. The paper discusses types of events between cyclists and public transport vehicles, with the identification of dangerous behaviours of cyclists and drivers. The most frequent reasons of these events are discussed, taking into account the places of occurrence of accidents, type and condition of bicycle and public transport infrastructure and types of behaviours of traffic participants. The research part of the paper presents statistical analyses of the number of accidents between cyclists and public transport vehicles, as well as statistics describing the number of victims in accidents in the six largest Polish cities. Based on detailed descriptions of events - using statistical tools - accidents were analysed in terms of identifying the most important reasons of their occurrence and circumstances conducive to the occurrence of accidents. The article was crowned with the recommendations for the application of solutions reducing the risk of accidents.