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In Britain, a third of road traffic fatalities are pedestrians or cyclists. Media reporting may play a key role in shaping how people interpret these events. We conduct in-depth Critical Discourse Analysis of a sample of 17 London Evening Standard articles, covering car-bicycle, car-pedestrian, and bicycle-pedestrian fatality collisions. Using Van Leeuwen's Social Actor model we find that drivers involved in collisions are backgrounded, except those who failed to stop, who are portrayed as exceptional. Pedestrian casualties are framed episodically, i.e. as individual incidents not linked to wider contexts. Cyclist fatalities are presented thematically, although this common theme was cycling itself, not infrastructure, policy, or driver behaviour. When involved in pedestrian fatality collisions, cyclists are directly described as participants, rather than referred to indirectly through their vehicle as drivers are. Thus, narratives tend to erase driver agency in collisions while highlighting agency for cyclists, and pedestrian deaths appear as isolated incidents rather than part of a wider structural pattern. We identify three key tropes: rogue drivers, typical cyclists, and tragic pedestrians. The analysis shows how these, and the reporting patterns identified here, help to reproduce assumptions about risk posed to others by different modes, and consequent responsibility for crashes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we represent a systematic review of stated preference studies examining the extent to which cycle infrastructure preferences vary by gender and by age. A search of online, English-language academic and policy literature was followed by a three-stage screening process to identify relevant studies. We found 54 studies that investigated whether preferences for cycle infrastructure varied by gender and/or by age. Forty-four of these studies considered the extent of separation from motor traffic. The remainder of the studies covered diverse topics, including preferred winter maintenance methods and attitudes to cycle track lighting. We found that women reported stronger preferences than men for greater separation from motor traffic. There was weaker evidence of stronger preferences among older people. Differences in preferences were quantitative rather than qualitative; that is, preferences for separated infrastructure were stronger in some groups than in others, but no group preferred integration with motor traffic. Thus, in low-cycling countries seeking to increase cycling, this evidence suggests focusing on the stronger preferences of under-represented groups as a necessary element of universal design for cycling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how dominant policy paradigms promote a ‘utility’ model of transport, prioritising the destruction of distance and the minimisation of time spent travelling. It suggests that within low-cycling countries, this framing has reinforced the policy marginalisation of cycling, which is cast as having problematic associations with leisure and pleasure. Hence, while the multiple benefits of cycling might seem to mandate policy support, these benefits (including health and equity impacts) seem tainted by association with cycling’s non-transport connotations. The paper analyses interview data from the ESRC Cycling Cultures project to explore how cyclists and cycling stakeholders negotiate the landscape of ‘utility cycling’. It examines how people appeal to a ‘utility narrative’, while often simultaneously appealing to considerations that apparently contradict it. Conclusions for cycling and broader transport policy are drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article contributes to debates around cycle safety clothing, specifically helmets and high-visibility clothing. In England such items are widely promoted in safety campaigns and in broader cycling publicity, particularly for children. However, the impact of this approach on cycling safety and cycling uptake is unclear and contested. This article uses a combined analysis of three sets of qualitative interview data to explore talk about cycle helmets and high-visibility clothing. A thematic analysis involved coding all references to such safety clothing, and within that coding meanings, experiences, interactions, and links to other safety equipment. Reported use of safety clothing was strongly associated with perceived threat from motor vehicles, but accompanied by scepticism about effectiveness. Many interviewees felt and/or exerted social pressure to wear a helmet, and, to a lesser extent, high-visibility clothing. Analysis identified a widespread dislike of safety clothing, sometimes linked to talk about cycling less because of the perceived need to wear such clothing. We found evidence of resistance to social pressure, expressed by complaining about inconvenience, discomfort (helmets), and personal appearance. More interdisciplinary research is needed to explore the complex relationships between cycling safety, the promotion of safety clothing, and cycling uptake. However, our findings suggest that policy-makers and practitioners should carefully consider how promoting safety clothing might impact cycling uptake and experiences. Policy goals of increasing cycling and making it more ‘normal’ and subjectively safer might imply reducing or even avoiding the use of such accessories in everyday utility cycling contexts, and relying on alternative strategies to improve cycling safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]