Poor quality cycle lanes cause most accidents in Sweden

Poor quality of cycle lanes are the most likely cause of bicycle accidents in Sweden, a report by insurance company Folksam claims. Some 70 per cent of all bicycle accidents which cause serious injuries involved only the cyclist and were caused by poor maintenance of the lanes, gravel or snow. Around 20 per cent of the accidents involved a car or other four-wheeled vehicles, while 10 per cent involved a moped, another bicycle or a pedestrian.
May 4, 2012 Read time: 1 min
Poor quality of cycle lanes are the most likely cause of bicycle accidents in Sweden, a report by insurance company 5440 Folksam claims. Some 70 per cent of all bicycle accidents which cause serious injuries involved only the cyclist and were caused by poor maintenance of the lanes, gravel or snow. Around 20 per cent of the accidents involved a car or other four-wheeled vehicles, while 10 per cent involved a moped, another bicycle or a pedestrian.

Maria Krafft, manager for Folksam's traffic research, said that municipalities would have to establish a strategy to improve the traffic safety for cyclists in the same way as for cars.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • New York pedestrian safety plans launched
    February 27, 2015
    New York Department of Transportation (DOT), in partnership with the New York Police Department (NYPD), has launched Borough Pedestrian Safety Action Plans for each of the five boroughs in the city. The plans are one of 63 Vision Zero initiatives aimed at eliminating all deaths from traffic crashes, regardless of whether on foot, bicycle, or inside a motor vehicle. Despite aggressive pedestrian-oriented street re-engineering between 2007 and 2013, citywide pedestrian fatalities have not declined. In fact, t
    Read More
  • Partially automated cars ‘provide financial and safety benefits’
    July 19, 2016
    Carnegie Mellon College of Engineering researchers in the US have concluded that the public could derive economic and social benefits today if safety-oriented, partially automated vehicle technologies were deployed in all cars. The researchers examined forward collision warning, lane departure warning and blind spot monitoring systems. These technologies can include partially autonomous braking or controls to help vehicles avoid crashes. Chris T. Hendrickson, director of the Carnegie Mellon Traffic21 In
    Read More
  • Road safety charity calls for ban on hands-free phones in vehicles
    June 8, 2016
    Following new research from psychologists at the University of Sussex, road safety charity Brake has renewed its calls for the UK government to look again at the laws around driving and mobile phone use. The study, published in the Transportation Research Journal, shows that drivers who are engaged in conversations that spark their visual imagination are much less able to spot and react to potential hazards. When the drivers involved in the study were asked about a subject that required them to visualis
    Read More
  • Brake calls for action as road casualty figures rise
    February 3, 2017
    Brake, the UK road safety charity, is calling on the government to take action to reduce the numbers killed and seriously injured on Britain’s roads. In recent years road safety policy has been diminished by a lack of interest, urgency and resources, the consequences of which are becoming increasingly apparent as our road casualty figures begin to rise. Brake is calling on the government to act now to uphold its commitment to zero road deaths and injuries on the road. Road casualty figures just released
    Read More

Highlighted Content