Wear a reflective vest with reflective tape on the bike or do not wear it. If the cyclist uses this safety element, the driver will be more aware of his presence and will drive with more caution and safe distance. On the contrary, when the cyclist does not take it, the driver pays less attention to the cyclist and advances it with less care. It is the main conclusion reached by the report "Driving attention: invisible cyclists for drivers", presented this morning in Madrid Mapfre Foundation and Bosch Spain.
The study is the result of a survey of 1,031 drivers who have overtaken a cyclist in a street and who have been asked if they have been aware of it during their journey. The report also includes the results of an in-depth analysis that has been carried out on 15 drivers between 20 and 57 years old, who have been monitored to see if they have been aware of the presence of cyclists and to analyze their behavior at the wheel, driving style and mistakes made.
Only one in four Spanish drivers (specifically, 23.1%) remember that just ahead of a cyclist without a reflective vest on a street, a proportion that increases to one in three (35.4%) if they exceed a bicycle user wearing a vest.
The study was carried out during the day between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. in Madrid. A total of 1,031 drivers participated in the quantitative phase of the investigation when overtaking a cyclist with a vest and another without him for about 400 meters. Some 100 meters later, they were surveyed during the 30 seconds they stood at a red light with two or three questions: if they had seen a bicycle circulating in the last 400 meters, if there was any risk of interacting with that vehicle and, in case affirmative, what was it.
In the case of the cyclist without a vest, only 23.1% answered that they had seen him and 3.9% that he had assumed some risk to overtake him. As for the bicycle users wearing a reflective vest, 35.4% verbally confirmed a conscious visualization and only 7.8% acknowledged having perceived some risk when passing it.
Therefore, the great majority of drivers of motor vehicles are not aware of the fact that they overtake cyclists, although this circumstance is greater among those who interact with bicyclists with vests, to whom they apply a greater safety distance.
On the other hand, a total of 15 drivers from 20 to 57 years participated in the qualitative phase of the study accompanied by a psychologist, who analyzed the behavior of motorists, their driving style and the mistakes made.
In this case, 27% of the drivers had made an effective visualization of the cyclist without a vest, which means that the others did the maneuver automatic way, and the perception of risk appeared in 1% of motorists. Regarding the cyclist with a vest, 39% had seen it and 8% had some perception of risk.
According to the study, users of bicycles were involved in 8,065 accidents in 2017, in which 78 cyclists died, 694 were injured hospitalized and 7,035 were injured not hospitalized. The accidents occurred mostly in urban roads (72%). That same year, four cyclists under the age of 15 died.
Given the lack of perception of cyclists by drivers and the increasing use of the bicycle as a means of urban transport, Bosch has developed the automatic emergency braking system with detection of cyclists, which was presented this Thursday after the study became known.
