Abstract
BackgroundRegular cycling has been shown to improve health and has a role in tackling the threats posed by obesity and inactivity. Cycle collisions, particularly those involving motorised vehicles, can lead to significant mortality and morbidity and are currently a barrier to wider uptake of cycling. There is evidence that the conspicuity of cyclists is a factor in many injury collisions. Low-cost, easy to use retro-reflective and fluorescent clothing and accessories ('conspicuity aids') are available. Their effectiveness in reducing cycling collisions is unknown. The study is designed to investigate the relationship between the use of conspicuity aids and risk of collision or evasion crashes for utility and commuter cyclists in the UK.Methods/DesignA matched case-control study is proposed. Cases are adult commuter and utility cyclists involved in a crash resulting from a collision or attempted evasion of a collision with another road user recruited at a UK emergency department. Controls are commuter and utility cyclists matched by journey purpose, time and day of travel and geographical area recruited at public and private cycle parking sites. Data on the use of conspicuity aids, crash circumstances, demographics, cycling experience, safety equipment use, journey characteristics and route will be collected using self-completed questionnaires and maps. Conditional logistic regression will be used to calculate adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals of the risk of a crash when using any item of fluorescent or reflective clothing or equipment.DiscussionThis study will provide information on the effectiveness of conspicuity aids in reducing the risk of injury to cyclists resulting from crashes involving other road users.
Highlights
Regular cycling has been shown to improve health and has a role in tackling the threats posed by obesity and inactivity
This study will provide information on the effectiveness of conspicuity aids in reducing the risk of injury to cyclists resulting from crashes involving other road users
Targets to reduce injury rates among road users have been set by the UK government [11] and the safety of ‘vulnerable road users’ such as cyclists is of increasing concern internationally [12,13]
Summary
Regular cycling has the potential to help deliver important public health policy objectives such as reducing obesity and physical inactivity [1,2,3,4,5]. The study was designed to achieve the following secondary objectives: (a) to assess the effect of use of specific fluorescent and reflective items, bicycle lights, reflectors and clothing and helmet colour on risk of CEC (b) to compare the effect of use of conspicuity aids on risk of CEC by light levels, weather conditions, gender, age and cycling experience. The number of injury pedal cycle crashes occurring in the previous three years (Department for Transport data), the numbers of cyclists passing randomly selected crash sites (from observations) and route length will be calculated These variables will be used to control for potential confounding from both objective and perceived route risk.
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