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"In 2007, an internal report for Transport for London concluded women cyclists are far more likely to be killed by lorries because, unlike men, they tend to obey red lights and wait at junctions in the driver's blind spot." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8296971.stm
very interesting about the height
Theoazb-
Yes, I think that report sheds no light. There has always been the problem of victim-blaming in reports on crashes involving cyclists, i.e. 'what has the cyclist done wrong this time?' Backhanded victim-praising isn't any better. Likewise, with very few exceptions, drivers don't want anyone to get injured, so discounting bad or good intentions for the moment, which factor could be significant here when looking at the issue dispassionately? Mine is an unproven hypothesis, of course. Anyway, direct-vision lorries are on their way, so I hope we'll see a positive effect from their introduction.
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It concluded nothing of the kind, and since it was never published it's not possible to say why the beeb said that. The TFL report said:
“Women may be over-represented in (collisions with goods vehicles) because they are less likely than men to disobey red lights.”
From such a small data set it is not possible, or helpful, to claim that firm conclusions can be made.
Oliver Schick
Scrabble
spindrift
Women are generally under-represented in crash stats, partly as they cycle less than men, but it is also thought that they take fewer risks than men. There is one glaring exception to these general trends, and that's in the aforementioned deaths from left-turning lorries, where they are over-represented.
I've looked at this question for years and have found (where such information was available, which of course it wasn't in quite a few cases) that most victims, not all but a very significant majority, of this type of crash were quite short (men and women). As women tend to be shorter than men, this may explain why they seem more affected, but whether this is true or not, it highlights the need for direct-vision lorries.
http://lcc.org.uk/pages/direct-vision-lorries