Promoting Bicycle Commuter Safety, Research Report 11-08

We present an overview of the risks associated with cycling to emphasize the need for safety. We focus on the application of frameworks from social psychology to education, one of the 5 Es—engineering, education, enforcement, encouragement, and evaluation. We use the structure of the 5 Es to organize information with particular attention to engineering and education in the literature review. Engineering is essential because the infrastructure is vital to protecting cyclists. Education is emphasized since the central focus of the report is safety

Integrating spatial and temporal approaches for explaining bicycle crashes in high-risk areas in Antwerp (Belgium)

The majority of bicycle crash studies aim at determining risk factors and estimating crash risks by employing statistics. Accordingly, the goal of this paper is to evaluate bicycle-motor vehicle crashes by using spatial and temporal approaches to statistical data. The spatial approach (a weighted kernel density estimation approach) preliminarily estimates crash risks at the macro level, thereby avoiding the expensive work of collecting traffic counts; meanwhile, the temporal approach (negative binomial regression approach) focuses on crash data that occurred on urban arterials and includes traffic exposure at the micro level. The crash risk and risk factors of arterial roads associated with bicycle facilities and road environments were assessed using a database built from field surveys and five government agencies. This study analysed 4120 geocoded bicycle crashes in the city of Antwerp (CA, Belgium). The data sets covered five years (2014 to 2018), including all bicycle-motorized vehicle (BMV) crashes from police reports. Urban arterials were highlighted as high-risk areas through the spatial approach. This was as expected given that, due to heavy traffic and limited road space, bicycle facilities on arterial roads face many design problems. Through spatial and temporal approaches, the environmental characteristics of bicycle crashes on arterial roads were analysed at the micro level. Finally, this paper provides an insight that can be used by both the geography and transport fields to improve cycling safety on urban arterial roads

The Interconnected Arctic — UArctic Congress 2016

climate change; Arctic; vulnerability; environment; marine and terrestrial polar landscapes; indigenous knowledge; touris

Balance and agility in mountain bikers: a reliability and validity study on skills affecting control in mountain biking

Background Cycling is a popular recreational and competitive form of physical activity and method of transport. Cycling is broadly categorised as road cycling or mountain biking, and each form presents unique challenges and has different skill requirements. While cycling, in general, provides many benefits to both physical health and social behaviours, there are legitimate concerns about injuries related to both road and mountain cycling. Most of the available research presents the injury incidence in commuter or road cycling, with an apparent lack of evidence in mountain biking. The van Mechelen model of injury prevention outlines four stages in injury prevention research; the first stage investigates the extent of the injury and provides the basis on which the remaining stages depend. Based on the van Mechelen conceptual model, the broad aim of this thesis was to investigate acute injury epidemiology in mountain biking and the factors affecting bicycle control and falling. Investigations We performed a systematic review of the incidence of injury in mountain biking. Acute injury incidence ranged from 4% to 71% in cross-country mountain bike races. The causal indicators of bicycle control may include balance, agility and visual perception. In a pilot study, we developed novel tests to assess static bicycle balance and bicycle agility as measures of bicycle control. In the following study, we developed additional dynamic bicycle balance with four increasingly difficult levels. In this study, twenty-nine participants attended three days of repeated testing for reliability assessments of these tests. Participants also completed an outdoor downhill run. Performance in the balance tests were compared to performance in the outdoor downhill test to assess their ecological validity. All tests were assessed for reliability using typical error of measurement, standardised typical error, intraclass correlation coefficients, limits of agreement, effect sizes and repeated measures ANOVA's (with post hoc testing) analyses. The novel bicycle balance and agility were significantly associated with the performance in the outdoor downhill run (r=-0.51 to 0.78; p=0.01 to 0.0001). Cognitive and physical fatigue are factors that may contribute to loss of control of the bicycle. In our final study, we aimed to assess the effect of these factors on the performance in the novel tests. Rate of perceived exertion was significantly increased for all tests following physical fatigue (Cliff's d effect size= 0.27-0.40; p=0.001 to 0.037), but balance and agility performance were not affected. Cognitive fatigue had no effect on balance and agility performance. The fatigue induced in these protocols was insufficient to change performance in the bicycle-specific balance and agility tests. This indicates that either the fatigue protocols did not sufficiently replicate the fatigue experienced in mountain biking or that the tests are too blunt to be affected by the magnitude of fatigue in these protocols. Conclusion The overall incidence of injury in mountain biking is difficult to determine due to different injury definitions in the research. However, the available data clearly indicates an area of concern in sports and exercise medicine. We developed novel tests to assess the skill components of balance and agility on a mountain bike. The novel bicycle-specific tests are robust assessments of mountain biking performance and can be applied in clinical and research environments to determine bicycle control. Cognitive and physical fatigue did not affect performance on these novel tests. Based on the overall findings of our studies, we recommend that further research is conducted on the epidemiology of mountain biking injuries. The effect of fatigue on the novel tests needs to be investigated further using a combination of physical and cognitive fatigue

Expectations of safety: realising ergonomics and safety in product design

This research considers the role of ergonomics in consumer safety. The aim was to encourage and improve the input of ergonomics, and thus safety, into the design process. The research has resulted in a series of publications targeted specifically at designers and producers of consumer goods, with the aim of encouraging their adoption of ergonomics principles, data and methods. These publications have been produced and distributed to industry by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Consumer Safety Unit: CHILDATA: The Handbook of Child Measurement and Capabilties - Data for Design Safety Designing Safety into Products: Making ergonomics evaluation a part of the design process (presented as an appendix to this thesis). The background to the research is a review of the influences on consumer safety, and the exploration of a role for ergonomics. European consumer legislation states that to be safe a product must meet the expectations of the user, hence the title of this thesis. This user-centred premise indicates the importance of product design and ergonomics in consumer safety, within the context of the other influences on safety such as safe-guarding, mitigation of accidents and education. Theoretically this places ergonomics as a central influence on safety. A review of the existing contributors to safety, such as governance, standards and education was undertaken and again design was found to be central. With the potential contribution of ergonomics to safety demonstrated, evidence of a formal relationship between ergonomics and the design process was sought from the literature. Despite many years of calls for improvements in the input of ergonomics to design, little evidence was found in the ergonomics literature of support or guidance for designers of consumer products on either of these aspects. Two main routes to improving this input of ergonomics to design were identified: the use of ergonomics data and guidelines, and the use of ergonomics evaluation methods. This research focuses on these two routes to product design safety with the hypothesis that these inputs could be improved, eventually allowing better design safety to be realised. The aims of the research were therefore to investigate and improve these inputs. The first stage of the research considered the use of ergonomics data and guidelines in design. The limitations of ergonomics data and the barriers to effective knowledge transfer were identified. Work was undertaken to address these problems, in the first instance specifically for designers of children's products. This resulted in the production of "Childata”, a handbook of ergonomics data on children, and its production and content are described. Four thousand copies of this handbook have been published and distributed free of charge to industry by the DTI. The success of Childata has resulted in sibling publications on adults (now published) and the elderly (in preparation). The next stage of the research was to consider the use of ergonomics evaluation methods by designers. A review of the literature on ergonomics methods and on guidance for their use found that there was a dearth of practical advice for designers. Also, that most guidance on evaluation methods concentrates on usability with very little reference specifically to safety. The feasibility of producing guidance for designers to encourage their use of evaluation was therefore considered. A series of four product safety evaluations were undertaken, presented here as case studies, and these form the major experimental part of the research. The aim of the case studies was to investigate the most useful and common methods for evaluating product safety and to generalise these into guidance for designers ,as well as producing formal reports and recommendations for improvements in the safety of the individual products. The products investigated were swimming pool covers, carbonated drinks bottles, all terrain bicycles and stepladders. The case studies showed however that a diversity of methods were needed to carry out the evaluations, many of which were novel methods or which drew on a mixture of ergonomics, technical and market research expertise T he only commonality found was in the sequence of stages that each evaluation followed, namely the identification of the products' users and hazards, the setting of performance criteria and selection of measurement variables, and the subsequent choice of methods. T he initial concept behind the fundamental research to producing prescriptive advice on methods was therefore rejected. Instead a framework for a generic evaluation process was developed, based on the findings from the case studies and with reference to the literature. This framework formed the basis of a guidance document for designers: ‘Designing Safety Into Products'. This was also published and distributed to industry by the DTI. The publication establishes and encourages a generic evaluation process, but also concentrates on embedding ergonomics principles into the design process by exploring the relationship between evaluation and safety and stressing the need to move past the use of ergonomics data, as well as providing methodological guidance. The research reported in this thesis has shown that the problems with the transfer of knowledge and methods from the ergonomics discipline are long standing. The reasons for this are discussed and recommendations are made to improve the link between design and ergonomics, including furthering this pragmatic approach to empowering designers by the production of similar design tools. The research programme has been a pragmatic approach to improving ergonomics and safety in design: improving the accessibility of ergonomics data for designers and promoting ergonomics evaluation methods during the product development process. The publications that have resulted from the research represent pragmatic steps which it is hoped may make some contribution to the realisation of safety

Recreation, tourism and nature in a changing world : proceedings of the fifth international conference on monitoring and management of visitor flows in recreational and protected areas : Wageningen, the Netherlands, May 30-June 3, 2010

Proceedings of the fifth international conference on monitoring and management of visitor flows in recreational and protected areas : Wageningen, the Netherlands, May 30-June 3, 201

Spatial Planning & Transport Engineering Using Children\u27s Maps to Locate Areas of Perceived Danger on Children\u27s Routes to School

Dublin faces many of the modern day transport problems associated with automobile transport. The bicycle is increasingly being viewed by Urban Planners as an interesting form of individual transportation which can form part of an integrated transportation solution to this problem. For cycling to be a sustainable mode of transport it must be all inclusive. However, there are some identifiable barriers which prevent certain groups in society from cycling. Barriers to children cycling are directly linked to safety concerns and strategies to encourage cycling to school in Ireland currently focus on promotion and cycle training with road safety engineering measures playing a minor role. This research developed a new, ethically sound methodology to locate areas of danger or perceived danger to children in an existing road network. The aim of the study was to improve the decision making process of planners and engineers when designing cycling infrastructure and road safety measures for children. This was achieved using spatial data within a Geographical Information System (GIS) and incorporated experiential data from children in three target schools in the Greater Dublin Area (GDA) and quantitative road data from the road Safety Authority (RSA). Findings from the study indicate that the two existing road safety tools currently used in Ireland, the RSA Accident Black Spot Map and the NRA Road Safety Audit, are inadequate when locating areas of perceived road danger to children. It was found that children cycling and walking to school could pinpoint locations in the road network where they experienced dangerous situations or where they did not feel safe. In both instances road types 5 (Regional Roads) and 6 (Local Roads) were identified by children as the most problematic roads. It is exactly these roads that provide the main part of the local cycle infrastructure. An important aspect of the proposed method is that the map gives children the opportunity to participate and provides valuable information which could enable Planners and Traffic Engineers to implement measures from The National Cycle Manual to help to realise the full potential of Dublin for cycling to school

Expectations of safety: realising ergonomics and safety in product design

This research considers the role of ergonomics in consumer safety. The aim was to encourage and improve the input of ergonomics, and thus safety, into the design process. The research has resulted in a series of publications targeted specifically at designers and producers of consumer goods, with the aim of encouraging their adoption of ergonomics principles, data and methods. These publications have been produced and distributed to industry by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Consumer Safety Unit: CHILDATA: The Handbook of Child Measurement and Capabilties - Data for Design Safety Designing Safety into Products: Making ergonomics evaluation a part of the design process (presented as an appendix to this thesis). The background to the research is a review of the influences on consumer safety, and the exploration of a role for ergonomics. European consumer legislation states that to be safe a product must meet the expectations of the user, hence the title of this thesis. This user-centred premise indicates the importance of product design and ergonomics in consumer safety, within the context of the other influences on safety such as safe-guarding, mitigation of accidents and education. Theoretically this places ergonomics as a central influence on safety. A review of the existing contributors to safety, such as governance, standards and education was undertaken and again design was found to be central. With the potential contribution of ergonomics to safety demonstrated, evidence of a formal relationship between ergonomics and the design process was sought from the literature. Despite many years of calls for improvements in the input of ergonomics to design, little evidence was found in the ergonomics literature of support or guidance for designers of consumer products on either of these aspects. Two main routes to improving this input of ergonomics to design were identified: the use of ergonomics data and guidelines, and the use of ergonomics evaluation methods. This research focuses on these two routes to product design safety with the hypothesis that these inputs could be improved, eventually allowing better design safety to be realised. The aims of the research were therefore to investigate and improve these inputs. The first stage of the research considered the use of ergonomics data and guidelines in design. The limitations of ergonomics data and the barriers to effective knowledge transfer were identified. Work was undertaken to address these problems, in the first instance specifically for designers of children's products. This resulted in the production of "Childata”, a handbook of ergonomics data on children, and its production and content are described. Four thousand copies of this handbook have been published and distributed free of charge to industry by the DTI. The success of Childata has resulted in sibling publications on adults (now published) and the elderly (in preparation). The next stage of the research was to consider the use of ergonomics evaluation methods by designers. A review of the literature on ergonomics methods and on guidance for their use found that there was a dearth of practical advice for designers. Also, that most guidance on evaluation methods concentrates on usability with very little reference specifically to safety. The feasibility of producing guidance for designers to encourage their use of evaluation was therefore considered. A series of four product safety evaluations were undertaken, presented here as case studies, and these form the major experimental part of the research. The aim of the case studies was to investigate the most useful and common methods for evaluating product safety and to generalise these into guidance for designers ,as well as producing formal reports and recommendations for improvements in the safety of the individual products. The products investigated were swimming pool covers, carbonated drinks bottles, all terrain bicycles and stepladders. The case studies showed however that a diversity of methods were needed to carry out the evaluations, many of which were novel methods or which drew on a mixture of ergonomics, technical and market research expertise T he only commonality found was in the sequence of stages that each evaluation followed, namely the identification of the products' users and hazards, the setting of performance criteria and selection of measurement variables, and the subsequent choice of methods. T he initial concept behind the fundamental research to producing prescriptive advice on methods was therefore rejected. Instead a framework for a generic evaluation process was developed, based on the findings from the case studies and with reference to the literature. This framework formed the basis of a guidance document for designers: ‘Designing Safety Into Products'. This was also published and distributed to industry by the DTI. The publication establishes and encourages a generic evaluation process, but also concentrates on embedding ergonomics principles into the design process by exploring the relationship between evaluation and safety and stressing the need to move past the use of ergonomics data, as well as providing methodological guidance. The research reported in this thesis has shown that the problems with the transfer of knowledge and methods from the ergonomics discipline are long standing. The reasons for this are discussed and recommendations are made to improve the link between design and ergonomics, including furthering this pragmatic approach to empowering designers by the production of similar design tools. The research programme has been a pragmatic approach to improving ergonomics and safety in design: improving the accessibility of ergonomics data for designers and promoting ergonomics evaluation methods during the product development process. The publications that have resulted from the research represent pragmatic steps which it is hoped may make some contribution to the realisation of safety

A phenomenological study of the experience of competitive cyclists following a critical incident: impact upon performance

This qualitative study seeks to illuminate the psychological impact of a critical, sport related negative incident upon competitive cycling performance and to inform therapeutic practice with this client group. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyse data from semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 7 competitive cyclists who had experienced a negative critical event such as an accident, fall or crash during their cycling participation and who found that the incident had a negative impact upon their performance. Analysis of the data focused on the participants’ experiences relating to the perceived impact of the critical incident upon performance. Six master themes emerged from the data encapsulating the experiences of the respondents: 1. Focus on self; 2. Focus on anxiety; 3. Physical injury; 4. Perceptual and decision-making processes; 5. Impairment of cycling performance; 6. Coping, adaptation and growth. The findings suggest that an integrative/eclectic therapeutic approach would be the most effective in tailoring interventions for this client group, in consideration of the breadth and nuance of the reported impact upon cycling performance. Counselling psychologists’ training and philosophical orientation equips them with the necessary skills and abilities to deliver such interventions