Rise in number of cyclists and motorcyclists injured on Bradford's roads

The team responsible for improving the safety of the District’s roads has said it will be “examining in detail” what has caused this rise.

This week two of Bradford Council’s Area Committees will be given an annual update on what is being done to prevent crashes and reduce casualties.

The update shows that the number of road collisions in Bradford fell from 833 in 2019 to 709 in 2020.

And the actual number of casualties in road crashes fell from 1,117 to 937.

There were eight fatalities on the roads of Bradford in 2020, down from nine the year before and 12 in 2018.

152 people were seriously injured, down from 139 in 2019.

The report acknowledges that the national lockdown was likely to have played some part in the roads becoming safer, but points out that there has been a steady decrease in incidents over the past five years.

Local cycling campaign reviews Bradford's new Active Travel measures

In 2016 there were 1,150 collisions leading to 1,611 casualties, and the figures have decreased each year since.

But while the number of pedestrians and car occupants injured on Bradford’s roads decreased, the number of cyclists and motorcyclists injured increased.

Last year 89 pedal cyclists were injured - up from 80 the previous year.

And the number of motorcyclists injured increased from 45 to 62.

The report going to the Area Committees says: “Both issues have been brought to the attention of the West Yorkshire Safer Roads Executive and will be examined in detail and reported back to this committee.”

Car occupants injured fell from 688 in 2019 to 570 in 2020, and pedestrians injured fell from 244 to 192.

The report adds: “The global Covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns had a significant impact on road traffic volumes and it is therefore difficult to establish how much of the downward trend seen in 2020 is due to an overall reduction in road traffic and how much is continuing the well established downward trend from previous years.”

Members of the area committees - made up of local councillors, will be told that efforts to reduce traffic accidents include road safety visits to schools - particularly schools in areas with high accident rates.

But the Covid Pandemic led to many of these sessions being postponed or cancelled. Some of the work was carried out as online packages for students who were being taught from home.

Several months into lockdown Bradford Council introduced a number of “active travel” measures to make it safer and easier for people to cycle and walk during the pandemic.

This included the closure of Shay Lane to cars and the introduction of temporary cycle lanes on busy routes such as Wakefield Road and Hall Ings.

Councillor Matt Edwards (Green, Tong) recently asked Bradford Council what the future of the temporary lane on Wakefield Road is.

A response by Council leaders said: “The Wakefield Road pop up cycle lane was installed as part of the Government’s Active Travel Fund Measures for Tranche 1. We are currently evaluating the merits of each individual project and a decision will be made in due course.”