Accredited official statistics

Reported road casualties in Great Britain: pedal cycle factsheet, 2022

Published 28 September 2023

This factsheet presents trends from 2004 onwards. However, grouped data for years from 2018 to 2022 is used widely in order to allow sufficiently robust analysis by age, sex and other variables

This factsheet gives an overview and key statistics on pedal cyclists involved in road collisions in Great Britain as reported by or to the police. This factsheet examines the main trends in collisions involving pedal cyclists and the casualties involved.

Pedal cyclists are one of the vulnerable user groups. They are not protected by a vehicle body in the same way car users are, and tend to be harder for drivers to see on the road. They are, therefore, particularly susceptible to injuries.

Data in this factsheet is from 2004 onwards. Serious and slight injuries have been adjusted to account for changes in the severity reporting systems. More information on the change and adjustment process is available in the severity adjustment guidance.

It should be noted that it has been long known that a considerable percentage of non-fatal casualties are not reported to the police. Non-fatal casualties for pedal cyclists are amongst the most likely to be under-reported in road casualty data since cyclists have no obligation to inform the police of collisions. This should be borne in mind when analysing and interpreting the data.

Main findings

Between 2004 and 2022:

• fatalities were down 32% from 134 to 91

• serious injuries (adjusted) increased by 21%

• pedal cycle traffic increased by 50%

Averaged over the period 2018 to 2022:

• an average of 2 pedal cyclists died and 81 were seriously injured (adjusted) per week in reported road casualties

• a majority of pedal cycle fatalities (58%) do not occur at or within 20m of a junction compared to 33% of all seriously injured (adjusted) casualties

• almost half (46%) of pedal cycle fatalities were in 2 vehicle collisions between a pedal cycle and a car

• 56% of pedal cycle fatalities occurred on rural roads compared to 30% of traffic

• 82% of pedal cycle killed or seriously injured (KSI) casualties were male

• the most common contributory factor allocated to pedal cyclists in fatal or serious collisions (FSC) with another vehicle was ‘driver or rider failed to look properly’. It was also the most common factor allocated to the other vehicles involved

Pedal cycle traffic and reported casualties

In 2022, 91 pedal cyclists were killed in Great Britain, whilst 4,056 were reported to be seriously injured (adjusted) and 11,546 slightly injured (adjusted).

Table 1 and chart 1 show that pedal cycle traffic rose between 2004 and 2022 faster than serious injuries whilst fatalities and slight injuries have fallen.

The overall number of pedal cyclist casualties fell each year from 2014 to 2020, but there was an increase between 2020 and 2022.

During 2022, pedal cyclist fatalities decreased by 18% while pedal cyclist traffic decreased by 7%.

Chart 1: Index of pedal cycle traffic and reported pedal cyclist casualties by severity, GB: 2004 to 2022 (Index 2004=100)

Table 1: Number of reported pedal cycle casualties by severity and traffic (pedal cycle billion vehicle miles), GB: 2004 to 2022

Year	Killed	Serious	Slight	All	Traffic
2004	134	3,357	13,157	16,648	2.59
2005	148	3,365	13,048	16,561	2.73
2006	146	3,410	12,640	16,196	2.86
2007	136	3,514	12,545	16,195	2.62
2008	115	3,546	12,636	16,297	2.93
2009	104	3,785	13,175	17,064	3.06
2010	111	3,856	13,218	17,185	3.10
2011	107	4,420	14,688	19,215	3.17
2012	118	4,563	14,410	19,091	3.35
2013	109	4,540	14,789	19,438	3.24
2014	113	4,971	16,203	21,287	3.59
2015	100	4,574	14,170	18,844	3.37
2016	102	4,354	14,021	18,477	3.36
2017	101	4,351	13,869	18,321	3.46
2018	99	4,342	13,109	17,550	3.52
2019	100	4,181	12,602	16,883	3.63
2020	141	4,281	11,872	16,294	5.30
2021	111	4,296	12,051	16,458	4.20
2022	91	4,056	11,546	15,693	3.90

Source: DfT STATS19 and National Road Traffic Census

How far do pedal cyclists travel?

There are two sources of cycling distances travelled published by the Department:

• the National Travel Survey (NTS) which provides the number of trips and average distance travelled by person per year for English residents. This is used to derive casualty rates per mile travelled for pedestrians.

• the National Road Traffic Census estimates based on annual traffic count data which produces total vehicle miles cycled by type of road. This is used to derive casualty rates per mile travelled for vehicle occupants.

Casualty rates per mile travelled

The pedal cycle casualty rate has fallen for all severities in 2022 compared to 2004.

The overall casualty rate decreased by 37%. The fatality rate decreased by 55% compared to a 20% reduction for serious injuries and a 42% reduction for slight injuries.

Chart 2: Index of casualty rates of pedal cycle casualties by severity, GB: 2004 to 2022 (Index 2004=100)

Table 2: Casualty rates of pedal cycle casualties by severity per billion vehicle miles travelled, GB: 2004 to 2022

Year	Killed	Serious	Slight	All
2004	52	1,294	5,070	6,416
2005	54	1,231	4,772	6,057
2006	51	1,192	4,417	5,659
2007	52	1,340	4,785	6,177
2008	39	1,210	4,312	5,562
2009	34	1,237	4,306	5,577
2010	36	1,245	4,268	5,549
2011	34	1,396	4,640	6,070
2012	35	1,360	4,295	5,690
2013	34	1,399	4,558	5,991
2014	32	1,386	4,518	5,936
2015	30	1,358	4,207	5,594
2016	30	1,295	4,170	5,495
2017	29	1,256	4,003	5,289
2018	28	1,234	3,725	4,986
2019	28	1,152	3,473	4,653
2020	27	808	2,240	3,075
2021	26	1,023	2,870	3,920
2022	23	1,041	2,962	4,026

Sex and age comparisons

Between 2018 and 2022, 82% of pedal cycle KSI casualties were male and 18% female.

There are 5 times more male than female pedal cycle KSI casualties overall. This compares to 10 times more for 12 to 15 year olds and 3 times more for 25 to 29 year olds.

Chart 3: Percentage of pedal cycle KSI casualties, by sex and age, GB: 2018 to 2022

Which other vehicles are involved in collisions with pedal cyclists?

Between 2018 and 2022, most pedal cycle fatalities occurred in 2 vehicle collisions involving a car (248).

However, the highest proportion of casualties that are fatal occur in 2 vehicle collisions involving an HGV (6.2%). However, the second highest proportion (2.5%) occurred in collisions when no other vehicle was involved.

Table 3: Pedal cycle casualties in reported road collisions by severity showing other vehicles involved, GB: 2018 to 2022

Other vehicles	Fatalities	Serious injuries	Slight injuries	All casualties	% Fatalities
No other vehicles involved	88	1,596	1,830	3,514	2.5%
1 pedal cycle	5	327	540	872	0.6%
1 motorcycle	4	357	1,265	1,626	0.2%
1 car	248	15,248	48,526	64,022	0.4%
1 bus or coach	11	298	791	1,100	1.0%
1 light goods vehicle	47	1,688	4,769	6,504	0.7%
1 heavy goods vehicle	65	358	625	1,048	6.2%
1 other vehicle	19	427	993	1,439	1.3%
2 or more other vehicles involved	55	856	1,842	2,753	2.0%
Total	542	21,156	61,180	82,878	0.7%

Time of day of collisions

The weekday peak time for pedal cyclist KSIs is from 7am to 10am and from 4pm to 7pm. By contrast, the pattern differs for Saturday and Sunday for both trips and KSIs. During the weekend there is a single peak around mid-morning (10 am to 12 noon) which gradually tails off during the afternoon and evening.

Chart 4: Reported pedal cyclist KSIs by hour of day and day of week, GB: 2018 to 2022

What type of road?

Chart 5 shows that between 2018 and 2022, 56% of pedal cycle fatalities occurred on rural roads compared to 30% in traffic. The proportion of non-fatal casualties on rural roads, however, were lower than the proportion of traffic.

Chart 5: Percentage of pedal cycle casualties, by urban rural classification and severity and traffic, GB: 2018 to 2022

In this report, urban roads are defined as those within an area of population of 10,000 or more in England and Wales or more than 3,000 in Scotland - roads outside of these areas are classified as rural (Department for Transport types of road definitions).

Vehicle movement on the road

A majority of pedal cycle fatalities (58%) do not occur at or within 20m of a junction compared to 33% of serious injuries (adjusted). However, 27% of fatalities occur at a junction compared to 41% of serious injuries (adjusted). Pedal cycle fatalities at roundabouts represent 4% of all fatalities in contrast to 13% of serious injuries (adjusted).

Table 4: Percentage of pedal cycle KSI casualties by severity and junction detail where the collision occurred, GB: 2018 to 2022

Junction	Fatalities	Serious	Slight	All Casualties
T, Y or staggered junction	22.1%	34.6%	36.8%	36.1%
Not at junction or within 20 metres	58.3%	32.8%	26.3%	28.2%
Roundabout	4.1%	10.5%	11.1%	10.9%
Crossroads	9.4%	9.6%	10.7%	10.4%
Other junction	3.3%	4.9%	5.3%	5.2%
Private drive or entrance	0.7%	2.7%	3.0%	2.9%
Mini-roundabout	0.4%	2.0%	2.5%	2.3%
Unknown	0.0%	0.7%	2.0%	1.7%
Junction - more than 4 arms (not roundabout)	1.3%	1.4%	1.5%	1.5%
Slip road	0.4%	0.7%	0.8%	0.7%

Contributory factors in collisions

Contributory factors provide an insight into how and why collisions occur. The factors are largely subjective as they reflect the opinion of the reporting police officer. They are assigned quickly at the occurrence of the collision and often without extensive investigations and so should be interpreted with caution. They are likely to be affected in part by preconceptions police officers have of certain vehicle groups. A maximum of six factors can be recorded for each collision.

Table 5 shows the ten most common contributory factors that have been allocated to pedal cyclists that have been involved in fatal or serious collisions (FSC) (between 2018 and 2022) and contrasts this with the number allocated to non-pedal cyclists in these collisions.

The 3 most common contributory factor assigned to both pedal cyclists and other vehicle types was ‘failed to look properly’ followed by a failure ‘to judge other person’s path or speed’ and ‘driver or rider careless, reckless or in a hurry’.

The fourth most common factor allocated to pedal cyclists was ‘cyclist entering the road from pavement’. For other vehicles in collision with them the fourth most common was ‘poor turn or manoeuvre’ .

Table 5: Contributory factors allocated to vehicles involved in fatal or serious collisions with pedal cycle, GB: 2018 to 2022

Contributory Factor	pedal cyclists	non-pedal cyclists	Any vehicle involved
Driver or rider failed to look properly	2,722	5,512	8,234
Driver or rider failed to judge other person`s path or speed	1,207	1,813	3,020
Driver or rider careless, reckless or in a hurry	982	1,587	2,569
Cyclist entering road from pavement	888	86	974
Poor turn or manoeuvre	506	1,096	1,602
rider wearing dark clothing	425	35	460
Loss of control	394	115	510
Travelling too fast for conditions	283	167	450
Not displaying lights at night or in poor visibility	269	14	283
Driver or rider impaired by alcohol	243	138	381

Further information

Further information on road collisions and casualties are available from Road Safety Statistics.

Published tables on casualties in reported road collisions are available.

Non-fatal casualties since 2016 have been affected by a large number of police forces changing their reporting systems which has had a large impact on the classification of injuries recorded. Further details of the adjustment for this are in the severity adjustment guidance.

Road collisions and safety statistics guidance including accompanying notes and definitions are available.

Personal travel statistics within Great Britain covering English residents is available from The National Travel Survey.

Road traffic statistics provide estimates of the vehicle miles travelled each year in Great Britain by vehicle type, road category and region.

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Email roadacc.stats@dft.gov.uk