Death and injury on the footway: Cyclists and pedestrians: the risks

This extract from the current issue of CTC's Cycle Digest might be helpful if you are confronted with opinion on cyclists and pedestrians / cycling on the pavement. It would seem to follow that the priority here is, as usual, dealing with the death and injury caused by motor vehicles and their drivers.

"cyclists very rarely cause pedestrians harm: just one pedestrian has been killed in collision with a pedal cycle in the past 2 years. In that time, there have been 1,070 pedestrians killed in collisions with motor vehicles. As for cases where the cyclist was found to have been acting illegally, there have been 3 other instances in the whole of the past decade, besides Jason Howard, where cyclists have been convicted following the deaths of pedestrians, two on the pavement, one on a grass verge.

By contrast, in 2005 - 09 there was an average of 45 pedestrians killed in collisions with motor vehicles on pavements or verges each year – that’s almost one a week.

Levels of prosecution

In total (i.e. including on-road as well as pavement collisions), there were 500 pedestrians and 104 cyclists killed on Britain’s road network in 2009 – that’s about 11 non-motorised users killed on average per week. Moreover, less than a quarter of all road fatalities ever lead to a prosecution, let alone a prison sentence – so that’s probably about 8-9 cyclists and pedestrians a week whose bereaved families then find the driver concerned faces no prosecution at all. And even when prosecuted and convicted, it is common for drivers who have killed pedestrians or cyclists to face fines of just a couple of hundred pounds."