Friday 29 January 2016

Operation Pedalo effectiveness (lights onto bicycles)

Lack of lights on bicycles in Cambridge has been a hot topic for as long as I can remember.  The city Police, local councillors and bottom half of the internet commenters have been absolutely certain that riding a bicycle without lights is a dangerous activity.

At Neighbourhood Policing meetings, locals get to specify issues that neighbourhood Police should tackle and targeting cyclists without lights is predictably in the top 3 priorities as we move into autumn. Policing appeared to go up when Cambridge Police began issuing Lights instead of Tickets (LIT) in late 2012.  This also coincided with the launch of Police and Crime Commissioners, a four year post filled by Graham Bright who has thrown his weight behind tackling cyclists without lights naming this Operation Pedalo.

Headlines tell us that a lot of Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) time has been spent in Cambridge on stopping cyclists without lights. After 3 years of big pushes we have enough data to measure the effect of the campaigns and decide if the scarce Police time is being used wisely.

Lets take a look at the raw number of cyclists being injured in Cambridge.  The graph below shows the numbers of cyclists killed, seriously injured and slightly injured.  This means any collision that emergency services were involved with.  Its showing 15 to 20 casualties a month from 2005 through 2014.


Another useful baseline is the amount of cycling casualties in each month of the year over the same 10 year period 2005-2015.  There are many effects to look out for.  Numbers of cyclists in Cambridge is less affected by season and more affected by University and College terms.  Winter months have more darkness which is relevant to Operation Pedalo and LIT.




The PCSO effort reached a peak in Autumn Winter 2012.  The most interesting story related to the efforts is "1000 Fined in Blitz on Bike Lights" (Cambridge News Jan 14th 2014)

The story shows the impact the PSCO efforts had:
Sgt Jayne Drury said the scheme had been so successful that nine out of 10 cyclists were now thought to be riding with lights. 
She told the city council’s west/ central area committee that the figure for nights back in August was believed to be six out of 10.
Such a significant change of light usage should show up in the road safety statistics for Cambridge cyclists.  Lets look closely.

The graph below looks at each month.  Within each group is the number of casualties sequentially each year.  The peak of PCSO activity is between Aug and Dec 2013, thats the second to last bar in each group.  It's hard to make out any clear pattern of lowering of casualties.



The STATS19 records indicate if a collision happened during daylight or hours of darkness.  Lets look at collisions in the dark only.  This should be a better dataset for measuring the effectiveness of more lights on bikes.


I cannot see any clear pattern of improved safety for cyclists as a result of Operation Pedalo.

I spent some time picking through the Cambridge News stories to find periods of increased PSCO effort.  See if you can match up the story to a point on the graph.

11 comments:

  1. Music began playing when I opened this webpage, so frustrating!
    Is it alright to post some of this on my website if I include a reference to this page?
    Soft Trending

    ReplyDelete
  2. Is it okay to post some of this on my site if I include a backlink to this page?
    Straightforward and written well, thanks for the information
    Thank you, great post! Just the thing I needed to know.
    shopbymark

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ill check back later to see if it worked.
    Awesome post.
    shopbymark

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hai bisogno di un lavoro part time ti consiglio il qui presente sito web. Cerchi telelavoro online?
    I think that is an interesting point, it made me think a bit. Thanks for sparking my thinking cap. Sometimes I get so much in a rut that I just feel like a record.
    shopbymark

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hello, I saw a 3 of your attention-grabbing posted posts and wished to ask if you happen to would be concerned with reciprocal pages? Team have blog about alexis texas ass! Anyway, in my language, there usually are not a lot good source like this.
    Sarah Berger

    ReplyDelete
  6. I cnduot bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg. Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dsenot mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm. Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Aaznmig, huh? Yaeh and I
    Sarah Berger

    ReplyDelete
  7. Aw, this was a really quality post. In theory Id like to write like this too taking time and real effort to make a good article but what can I say I procrastinate alot and never seem to get something done.
    sodium hypochlorite amazon
    china air purifier
    korean air purifier brands

    ReplyDelete
  8. Great post and straight to the point. I am not sure if this is really the best place to ask but do you people have any ideea where to hire some professional writers? Thx
    shopbymark

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have not been on this webpage in a long time however it was another joy to see It is such an important topic and ignored by so many, even professionals. I thank you to help making people more aware of possible issues.Great stuff as usual.

    My Recommendations for best 3D printers:

    3D printers

    LulzBot TAZ Pro

    LulzBot TAZ Pro 3D Printer

    ReplyDelete
  10. Good Day!
    I am extremely grateful to you for the most useful stuff.
    Thank you for such a wonderful contribution to aware people most of the latest updates.

    Get in touch with Bidvaluable today, go website for women's clothes, view auctions from bidvaluable, visit online jewellery store, click here for cheap clothes, buy clothing now on bidvaluable.com, view best auction site bidvaluable, visit cheap shopping site www.bidvaluable.com , auction now at bidvaluable, visit official site Bidvaluable, festival outfits Bidvaluable, online fashion specials sale Bidvaluable

    My Recommendations for best Auctions Online Shopping:

    Visit my site Bidvaluable Auction

    Women's Jewellery & Fashion jewellery Online Australia

    Live And Online Bidding

    Have a nice day!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks for the information sharing with us. Our personal injury attorneys are frequently acknowledged as industry leaders by their peers. Our law company believes that winning in personal injury, Auto accidents, animal attacks, and liability cases. Our Personal injury attorneys protecting your legal rights in Southern California.

    ReplyDelete