Driving has become safer in Victoria, with a steadily declining fatality rate over the past 15 years. But over the same period, cycling has not become any safer, with bicycle accident fatalities following no discernible downward trend.
More cyclists died on Victorian roads in 2014 than any year since 2006. Last year, 10 cyclists were killed – more than the 2000-2014 yearly average of eight – and this year, six have been killed in the first six months, putting cyclist deaths on track to reach 12 in 2015.
The numbers of cyclist deaths on Victorian roads has remained constant throughout the past 14 years, with a small increase if you overlook the outlier years 2000 and 2006. This is different to the total number of deaths on Victorian roads over the same period, which has shown a steady decline since a peak of 44 deaths in 2001 to 249 in 2014, a decrease of 44 per cent.
However, if we look at all of Australia, and a longer period of time – all the way back to 1991 – we see a small but steady decline in cyclist fatalities. A recent study by the University of New South Wales found that cyclist road fatalities across Australia have been steadily decreasing at a rate of 1.9 per cent per year between 1991 and 2003.
The report noted that this small annual decrease in fatal bicycle accidents is probably greater if you look at a per-kilometre accident ratio, but the data for that analysis does not exist.
Another interesting fact that the study found is that the average age of people dying while cycling has been increasing significantly. The average age of Australians who died in a single vehicle crash increased from 35 years old in 1991 to 54.8 years old in 2013.
Methodology
The data for the graphs, and the impetus of this investigation was obtained from data.gov.au. It was then combined from separate sheets of annual data into one spreadsheet and then analysed using pivot table and visualised using infogram.
