bike and tramtrack

Love Your Bike survey highlights impact of Metrolink tram tracks on cycling safety

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Love Your Bike, the cycling advocacy campaign co-ordinated by Manchester Friends of the Earth, has published the results of a survey of people’s experiences of cycling alongside or across Metrolink tram tracks.  The survey highlights that a large majority of respondents feel unsafe when cycling over tram tracks and there are many cases of people suffering serious injuries requiring hospital treatment. [1]

The survey was created after Love Your Bike raised concerns in December 2014 regarding the designs of Metrolink tram routes at road junctions such as Southmoor Road in Wythenshawe. [2]

This was not the first time, cycling organisations had raised concerns with the Metrolink tram track designs. In 2012, Sean Sutton (the British Cycling Head Coach at the time) described the new tram lines near to the Velodrome as ‘death traps‘. [3]

Love Your Bike is concerned that where cyclists have crashed or been injured when cycling close to/across Metrolink tracks they do not report the incident because they blame themselves for a supposed lack of cycling experience or skill.

The survey was not intended to be representative of the population of those cycling in Greater Manchester but to give those who have had experiences of cycling on, near and across Metrolink tracks an opportunity to report them.

Please note: not all respondents provided answers to all questions. The percentage figures below are calculated from the responses to each individual question. See Section 3 of the report for full details.

Survey:  the key findings [4]

* What happened: 44% of respondents had fallen off their bicycles when cycling along/ across Metrolink tram tracks. 36% of respondents had caught their bicycle wheels in the tram tracks.

* Damage/injuries: 56% of respondents reported damage to their bicycles or clothing, and 56% also reported suffering minor injuries (bruises, grazes). 25% of respondents reported suffering major injuries (broken bones, skin cuts). Further cases of serious injuries were also reported via other sources.

* Unsafe: 94% of respondents reported that they had felt unsafe “often” or “sometimes” when cycling alongside, close to or across tram tracks. This was “often” for 58% of respondents and “sometimes” for 36%. Only 4% of respondents reported that they “rarely” or 1.4% “never” felt unsafe when cycling alongside, close to or across tram tracks.

* Changed behaviour:  45% of respondents reported that they now take a different route and 50% reported being more cautious when cycling near tram tracks. 11% reported that they cycled less often and 3% reported that they have stopped cycling because of Metrolink tram tracks. People have changed their cycling behaviour and some have stopped cycling altogether because of their experience of cycling over Metrolink tram tracks.

* Under-reporting: Over 85% of incidents were not reported at all. The TfGM response to our Freedom of Information application suggested they had received 9 reports in 2013 and 29 in 2014. Our survey indicates that 23 incidents were not reported in 2013, 70 incidents were not reported in 2014 and 53 in the first six months of 2015.

Love Your Bike believes that many of these incidents are often caused by poor designs. In January 2015, Transport for London (TfL) announced a junction-by-junction safety review of the Croydon tram network following a Coroner’s report that criticised “confusing” signage and layout of cycle lanes at the junctions with the tram network and warned more cyclists could die unless action was taken. [5]

Greater Manchester should not be installing cycle routes that make people feel unsafe when cycling. This will not help us achieve the Velocity 2025 ambitions to become a world-class cycling city.

Manchester Friends of the Earth Sustainable Transport Campaigner Graeme Sherriff said:  “We launched the survey to ask the wider community to let us know their experiences of cycling across tram tracks in Greater Manchester. The survey has highlighted some serious cycling safety issues with the designs for Metrolink tram tracks on the road network.  The GM Combined Authority and Metrolink need to urgently find solutions.”

Peter Green, Sustrans Area Manager for Greater Manchester said: “We welcome this report from Love Your Bike, which provides clear evidence of poorly designed cycle routes over tram tracks. We know of several problem junctions which do not meet standards for safety and quality and in many cases there are diversions which are also badly designed and implemented. If we want to become a cycling city we need to make top quality cycle routes that are easy and intuitive to use.”

The findings from our survey, the research literature and examples from other cities highlight the need for Transport for Greater Manchester, Metrolink and the Greater Manchester Combined Authorities take action. Love Your Bike calls on them to:

* Accept there are cycle safety design issues associated with the Metrolink tram network routes.

* Undertake a junction by junction safety review to assess the design impacts on cycle safety and identify measures to improve the existing tram routes for safer cycling. We should not need to wait for a fatality before conducting such a review.

* Ensure that any ‘safe alternative’ routes are both convenient to use and meet all of the TfGM cycle guidance design criteria.

* To locate Greater Manchester NHS data for bicycle crash injuries.

* To co-operate with other agencies, such as GM Police, hospital trusts and local councils to establish an effective incident reporting and mapping system that encourages people to report and identify areas of concern.

* Include the cycling community / organisations in the design process from an early stage of any future schemes (eg Trafford Park)

* Develop better educational campaigns and training resources such as the Nottingham NET cycle-tram safety video and training course and clearer, more intuitive signage.

ENDS

Contact for comments:

Pete Abel, Love Your Bike, Mobile: 07951 642858

Dr Graeme Sherriff, Manchester Friends of the Earth Sustainable Transport campaign co-ordinator, Mobile: 07948 405071

Notes to Editors

1.  The Metrolink and Cycling Safety survey report is available online.

2.  Concerns with Metrolink tram routes: Statement to Manchester Cycle Forum.

3. Manchester Evening News. 19 November 2012. Olympic coach Shane Sutton, badly hurt in bike crash, says tram lines around Manchester Velodrome are ‘death trap’ for cyclists.

4.  The Survey:  What is your experience of cycling across Metrolink tram tracks?  is still open. See www.loveyourbike.org/metrolinksurvey

Between 12th March and 30th June 2015, 278 respondents reported that they had experienced an incident and the details of 190 Incidents were provided. In addition, 39 respondents reported that they had “witnessed an incident involving someone else cycling alongside, close to or across Metrolink tracks” and details were provided of 39 incidents that had been witnessed. We also received additional reports of crashes and photographs of injuries via the Love Your Bike email and Twitter accounts as well as via the Manchester Evening News Facebook page.

5. Croydon tram network to be reviewed in wake of coroner Selena Lynch’s warnings over death of cyclist Roger De Klerk.

6. Love Your Bike is an award winning Manchester based campaign aiming to promote cycling and help make it an even more attractive, accessible and fun way to get around. Co-ordinated by Manchester Friends of the Earth, the campaign works in partnership with other like-minded organisations. See www.loveyourbike.org

7. Manchester Friends of the Earth is an award-winning environmental campaign group, raising awareness and lobbying for policy changes at a local, regional, national and international level. The group consists entirely of volunteers, and its campaigns are funded by membership fees and individual donations. Up-to-date information is available on the group’s website: www.manchesterfoe.org.uk  Manchester Friends of the Earth is a Licensed Local Group of Friends of the Earth, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

8. Manchester Friends of the Earth has endorsed Manchester: A Certain Future, an action plan for the city of Manchester to cut its carbon emissions by at least 41% by 2020. For more information, visit  www.manchesterclimate.com