That's cool. Anyone know if in London your average risk of death goes up or down if you cycle to work? I'm scared of pollution (which has already started making me ill as a pedestrian) and traffic incidents.
back
9 comments
I recall reading a couple of articles on this subject about cities in general [1, 2]. London was called out as OK:
"Our model indicates that in London health benefits of active travel always outweigh the risk from pollution. [1]"
What I'd like to know is, given an accident rate, pollution level, and other factors, what is the "safety factor" of walking/cycling vs. tube/rail/bus/car/taxi?
Edit: These graphs are great:
https://ig.ft.com/sites/urban-cycling/assets/pollution-londo...
https://ig.ft.com/sites/urban-cycling/assets/pollution-world...
Interesting stats:
- In 1% of cities worldwide, pollution levels are high enough that "active travel" is dangerous past 30mins of activity.
- ~40,000 people in the UK die earlier every year due to air pollution.
1: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/walking-and-cycling-good-...
London is probably ok except during december 1952.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog_of_London
As somebody that has cycled in London, cycling from Paddington to Holborn enabled me to avoid busy roads. Yes the route was slightly longer but on a bike that really isn't an issue. I only ever did Oxford Road once. Never again. Getting to work via Hyde Park, Soho, or past Buckingham Palace is just pure joy.
I found walking meant you were mostly on busy roads as these were the most direct routes.
Just move away from London while it's not late. I also was scared, but not scared enough... now I'm totally allergic to cars and people don't understand me.
It's not worth for the money either: rents go up a lot if you have to live at places with no cars, but still in modern places close to good work/social life.
Where did you go?
I'm in Zurich...not as fun as London, but air quality (and salary) is much better.
I'm cycle daily from Dalston to Holborn. And my daily commute was more or less similar for past 7 years. Most of the time I take main roads and I feel safe. I know all the sections well, know the sketchy bits where it's better to stay behind the traffic, etc. If you're not bothered to add +10min to every 30min of your commute, you can take smaller side roads which are usually very quiet and most importantly free from large vehicles. No accidents so far. Can't comment on effects of pollution though, I have no idea.
I'm not sure about London, but this has been studied before in other cities and it's been found that the benefits significantly outweigh the risks: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2920084/
Unless London is significantly (>~20x) more dangerous than the Netherlands, I'd expect the result to hold there too.
Very much down. Everyone gets pollution, but cyclists' air intakes are further above vehicle exhaust that passengers and pedestrians. London's black snot is your filters working!
As for incidents, the risk is offset by health benefits. Last time I checked it was approx 1 serious incident per 100,000 miles ridden (which is much more than the lifetime of most riders).
and as 90% of fatalities are caused by undertaking HGV's not undertaking traffic and not riding in the gutter reduces that risk considerabley
Last I checked, Walking, Bus or Tube all registered as worse r.e. pollution. The article suggested it was mostly about duration of exposure, of which cycling was the lowest.
As for traffic incidents - I don't think they're massively different in London compared to the rest of the UK.
The study in the article indicates that risk of death _by any method_ goes down by 41%, though admittedly it's not based on London data.
-edit- Not the article I mentioned above, but similar results: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35717927 (cycling & walking perform better than public transport r.e. pollution intake.)
While one may be more exposed to pollution taking public transport, you breathe a lot more running or cycling.
I biked in London for almost 2 years (Whitechapel to Farringdon, then Deptford Bridge to Farringdon). What I found helped a lot was to avoid roundabouts as much as possible, and be extra cautious when overtaking on the left near stops. Assume everyone is going to turn left in front of you, 50% of the time you'll be right. ;)
Which part of London?
I used to commute through the fumes to Soho, by bike, taking approximately an hour each way. There have been other commutes, e.g. around the North Circular or straight up the A5 to Stanmore, however, I nowadays avoid central London due to the air quality. It is as simple as that, the air is not good. There is no way to effectively avoid this if you do need to actually get somewhere central.
I believe that the traffic is manageable and not a problem so long as you like hi-viz and ride as per the Highway Code.
If you do have to commute to central London then don't - get another job a bit further out and get your life back, and your health.
Nowadays I get trains places once or twice a month but otherwise just cycle the river ('Thames') and other low pollution areas, e.g. Richmond Park.
Also winds are prevailing one way due to how the earth spins, so make sure you live in the West of London and not the East.
Outer London good, inner London = move!!!