A diary study of the risk perceptions of road users

Employing an in situ diary, 291 road users in Oxford (pedestrians, cyclists , motorcyclists, car drivers and bus drivers) recorded details of all journ eys made during 1 week and noted any incidents and near-misses which occurr ed on these journeys. On average, pedestrians and cyclists reported 0.18 in cidents per mile travelled (one incident every 5.59 miles) and motorcyclist s, car drivers and bus drivers reported 0.02 incidents per mile travelled ( one incident every 41.67 miles). Analysis revealed mutual conflict between cyclists and buses, and irritation on behalf of pedestrians towards cyclist s on pavements. Only 35% of incidents involving cyclists occurred at juncti ons and the paper discusses likely reasons for the discrepancy between this and the usual two-thirds figure quoted in official accident records. While the rate of incident perception reflected the vulnerability of pedestrians and cyclists, the amount of distress experienced did not, as bus drivers r ated more of their incidents as distressing than did any other group. When incident reporting was compared to accident figures, the data suggest that car drivers were paying more attention to near-misses with the less vulnera ble road users (i.e. those who could harm them) than they were to near-miss es with more vulnerable road users (i.e. those whom they could harm).