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Cycling on Delhi streets? Study shows cyclists face 40 times higher threat to life

IIT Delhi study published on 31 January shows between 2017 and 2019, for same distance travelled, 20.8 cyclist deaths were reported annually, compared to 9.5 motorcyclists & 0.53 car occupants.

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New Delhi: Cyclists are 40 times as likely to die in road accidents as those travelling in cars in the national capital if one were to compare the deaths for the same distance covered, according to a recent study.

According to a working paper published in the International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion (a Taylor and Francis publication), while the absolute number of the deaths of cyclists was lower compared to those travelling in cars, the study indicated that the threat to them was higher even in the short distances they covered on the streets.

The research was authored by Rahul Goel, assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Delhi’s Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre (aka TRIP Centre), and was published online on 31 January.

On an absolute basis, the data shows that the number of fatalities involving a cyclist in Delhi is lower — according to the data published by the Ministry of Transportation and Highways (MoRTH), on average, about 74 bicyclists died every year in the national capital over the past five years (2017-2021) — fewer than the average of 216 annual deaths involving a car/jeep/taxi.

However, the research paper says that cyclists travel relatively shorter distances as compared to the average car driver or biker, and, seen in this light, their deaths are higher.

In order to get a better understanding, the research uses a common measure — the number of fatalities per billion kilometres travelled. Using this, the researchers found that between 2017 and 2019, for the same distance travelled, cyclists in Delhi faced a risk of 20.8 deaths, compared to 9.5 faced by motorcyclists and 0.53 by car occupants.

This number shows there’s a growing need for state intervention, the study argues.

“There is now a growing interest among the cities to improve cycling levels by providing safe infrastructure,” the authors say. “This will help in decarbonising transport and make the population healthier. Perceived lack of safety is a major self-reported barrier to the uptake of cycling. It is therefore of significance to monitor the risk of cyclists.”

Graphic: Ramandeep Kaur | ThePrint
Graphic: Ramandeep Kaur | ThePrint

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How they did it

The report argues that while there are ways to estimate the distance travelled by motorists, such as odometer readings on vehicle inspections, or surveys, doing so for pedestrians and cyclists remains challenging.

In order to address this data gap, the author assumed that the ratio of kilometres covered by bicycles to the number of kilometres covered by motorcycles is the same as the ratio of their volumes in the overall traffic in the city.

For the volume of traffic, researchers used a study that IIT-Delhi conducted in 2018 and used the 2011 Census data to determine how many bicyclists commute to work. 

For the study, authors assume vehicle occupancy — that is, the number of people in a vehicle — to estimate the number of kilometres a passenger travels in the city. The study assumes that if two people have travelled 20 km in the same car, they have each travelled the same distance, that is, 20 km.

Using traffic volume and distance, the authors concluded that cyclists in Delhi cover a distance of 2.4 to 2.6 billion km a year on average against 57.11 billion km for motorcyclists and 99.5 billion km for car occupants.

The author also compared Delhi’s statistics with that of London, a city similar in size and population, and found that the fatality rate per billion passenger kilometres was lower — 14.8 for bicyclists, 32.1 for motorcyclists, and 0.33 for car occupants.

(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)


Also Read: Indians flout traffic rules because ‘everyone does it’. Road safety should be a public good


 

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