Cycling UK has claimed that an increasing number of road safety measures, including the introduction of liveable neighbourhoods, 20mph zones, and last year’s updates to the Highway Code, are behind the recent fall in cyclist fatalities on British roads.
New analysis from the cycling charity has found that the number of people killed while cycling in England, Scotland, and Wales, per billion miles, also fell by almost a quarter compared to the immediate pre-pandemic years.show that the number of miles travelled by people cycling in 2022 totalled 3.9 billion, a 12 percent increase from the average of 3.5 billion miles a year recorded between 2015 and 2019.
Notably, the DfT’s figures also show that the number of cyclists killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads fell considerably in 2022. While over 4,400 people were killed or seriously injured while cycling every year between 2015 and 2021, this number dropped to 4,146 in 2022. “These figures prove the tragic death toll on our roads isn’t inevitable,” Cycling UK’s chief executive Sarah Mitchell says. “They show the government could save hundreds of lives and prevent thousands of devastating injuries by taking more action to reduce road danger.