Skip to main content

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

  • Mexico improves road safety with speed enforcement programme
    June 7, 2012
    A programme of road safety education and enforcement in the State of Jalisco in Mexico has reduced speed related fatalities by 40% in nine months Speed enforcement equipment will appear in greater number and visibility around the city of Guadalajara over coming months, as the Mexican State of Jalisco expands its road safety campaign. This comes hot on the heels of an initial programme of traffic speed education and enforcement in Guadalajara, which has yielded remarkable results, reducing speed related fata
  • Autonomous vehicles – saviour and threat, says report
    November 1, 2016
    A new report from IDTechEx Research notes that autonomous vehicles need no pilot, not even one in reserve. Many truly autonomous vehicles are unmanned mobile robots prowling everywhere from the ocean depths to nuclear power stations, the upper atmosphere and outer space. They create billion dollar businesses such as aircraft and airships aloft for five to ten years on sunshine alone carrying out surveillance or beaming the internet to the 4.5 billion people who lack it. Independence of energy and electri
  • UK ‘headed for gridlock’ as new record car use revealed
    May 20, 2016
    UK Road safety charity Brake is concerned by worrying new figures showing car traffic reached a new peak in 2015, with overall traffic increasing by almost 19 per cent since 1995. According to UK government statistics, the number of vehicle miles travelled grew by 1.1 per cent in 2015, to 247.7 billion, slightly higher than the previous peak in 2007. Van traffic has continued to grow more quickly than any other vehicle type, rising 4.2 per cent from 2014 levels. Lorry traffic saw the largest year-on-year
  • ‘Free’ power for signs, shelters and so much more
    March 17, 2016
    David Crawford looks at the sunny side of the street. Solar power has been relatively slow in entering the transport sector, but a current blossoming of activity bodes well for the large-scale harnessing of an alternative energy that is zero-emission at source and, in practical terms, infinitely renewable. Traffic management and traveller information systems, and actual vehicles, are all emerging as areas for deployment. Meanwhile roads themselves are being viewed as new-style, fossil fuel-free ‘power stati