City second in cyclists’ danger list

NEWCASTLE has been ranked the second most dangerous place for cyclists in the UK in a new survey.

The number of bike accidents, average steepness of routes, surface quality and lighting across cycling routes were all analysed to assign a danger score to 41 cities across the UK.

According to the findings, Birmingham was the most dangerous city followed by Newcastle and then Plymouth. Sunderland, the only other North East city to feature, was ranked 17th.

Cycling in the UK has surged by almost 200% since Covid lockdowns were put in place and it shows no sign of slowing down.

Bikers are most likely to suffer from poorly-maintained road surfaces (9/10), and steep pathways where less than 50% are equipped with optimal lighting. These could thus contribute to the city’s bike accident score of 6.75/10.

Newcastle received a danger score of 7.21/10. The authors of the report said not only are roads majorly steep (9.75/10), cyclists stand a relatively high risk of being involved in road crashes as bike accident score averages 8.67/10 only 0.91 lower than London (the worstperforming city in this regard).

Redemption for Newcastle comes from satisfactory road conditions, with smooth pathways (3/10) and optimal lighting along over 70% of cycling routes.

Meanwhile, Sunderland had a danger score of 5.17. It has steep routes (10/10), a low average bike accident score of 2.33; a surface quality score of 6.5 and a dim lighting score of 7.5.

The work, carried out by Claims.co. uk, was based on data ‘scraped’ from over 12,000 routes from a reputable cycling network site. Birmingham racked up an overall danger score of 7.38/10, making it the UK’s worst.