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Cycling can be one of the most rewarding ways to get from A to B, especially in urban areas where there are already too many cars on the road. Chances are if you are reading this then you probably don’t need convincing.
Unfortunately however, riding a bicycle through a city can, at other times, also be some of the most stressful, dangerous and downright unpleasant riding you’ll ever do. More road users, as well as more junctions and roundabouts all increase the likelihood of collisions.
> New global ranking shows UK cities have a lot of catching up to do on cycling
Just from personal experience, six months of commuting to London by bike led to as many falls as riding in the lanes during the previous decade. Thankfully, injury compensation website Claims.co.uk has done some actual research, so this should hopefully be a touch more informative than me emotionally judging cities based on how they treated me…
They pored over 12,000 cycling routes in cities up and down the United Kingdom, and analysed the number of incidents, steepness, surface quality and lighting, to come up with a ‘danger score’ for each. Yes, a bit like Top Trumps…
UK’s safest cities for cycling
Chelmsford in Essex came out on top as the safest city for cyclists, with an impressively low ‘average bike accident score’ of 0.08, as well as reasonable surface quality and lighting.
Worcester and Nottingham made the podium in second and third respectively. Nottingham had a lower ‘accident score’ than Worcester, but Claims.co.uk’s research assessed the Worcestershire city as safer due to its superior road surfaces and lighting.
There was Midlands representation elsewhere in the safest top-ten list, with Leicester ranked seventh.
With that said, there is a definite southern feel to the safest cities: Gloucester, Cambridge, St Albans and Norwich came fifth, sixth, ninth and tenth respectively.
Of the more northerly cities to make the top-ten, Lincoln ranked highest in fourth place, while York and Wakefield were eighth and ninth.
UK’s most dangerous cities for cycling
Birmingham is the most dangerous city for cyclists in the UK, according to Claims.co.uk who scored the second city a danger score of 7.38, just under six points higher than Chelmsford, and five points higher than nearby Worcester.
Newcastle upon Tyne, Plymouth, and Sheffield followed closely behind, with 7.21, 7.17 and 7.08 scores respectively.
Perhaps surprisingly, London only came fifth in the top-ten most dangerous list. The English capital had the highest ‘accident score’ by far — 9.58, but was helped by the relatively simple terrain and well-surfaced roads.
Preston, Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent, Bristol and Brighton completed the top-ten.
What do you think? Can we create a ‘score’ to represent how safe cities are to cycle in? Any surprises? Where did your city rank?
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