Bicycling has many advantages. For example, it emits less noise compared to motor vehicles, it is environmentally friendly, and bicycling, as a means of transport, gives people exercise. To encourage bicycling in Sweden, the Swedish government has promoted policies and proposals on national and local levels. At the same time, several pieces of research on bicycle use in Sweden show that more people are bicycling now than 60 years ago. STRADA’s (Swedish Traffic Accident Data Acquisition) reports also show that most people who are severely injured in traffic are bicyclists, and that most bicycle accidents occur in urban and metropolitan areas.   Stockholm is a European city with a growing population. At the end of 2013 the population were 897 700    and it is predicted to grow by 25 % by 2030. The municipality of Stockholm is working on investment projects for bicyclists with the aim to increase accessibility and road safety such as special road safety measures at intersections that often aim at improving road conditions for both pedestrians and bicyclists, and better maintenance of bicycle paths, both in summers and winters. Critics and different debate articles about bicyclists` safety and accessibility point out that the investments that Stockholm municipality is making are not enough for meeting the growing population, especially for bicyclists.   The aim of this study is to analyse the causes of bicycle accidents in the city of Stockholm. To help answer the research questions stated below, statistics on bicycle accidents were extracted in Excel from Strada and compiled in Excel using the Excel tool PivotTable and Analysis Tool Pak. The questions investigated in the thesis are as follows: when and where are bicyclists most likely to suffer an accident, why does the accident occur, and what causes are behind bicycle accidents at the chosen place of investigation? Five categorisations on the causes of single bicycle accidents were used and these were: operations and maintenance, road design, bicycle interactions, cyclists’ behaviour and conditions, and interaction with other road users.    In addition to the above, a semi-structural qualitative interview was conducted with bicyclists who bicycle in or along the report's area of investigation. The results of this report show that single bicycle accidents in the investigated area have increased between 2010 and 2016, and that many bicyclists are not satisfied with the bicycle infrastructure in Stockholm.

Cycling, as one of the oldest forms of mobility, is currently experiencing a renaissance. It supports active mobility and can have a positive influence on public health, the environment, climate and the traffic situation. Pedelecs (bicycles with an electric motor supporting the user up to a speed of 25 kmph) represent a new form of active mobility and are currently enjoying great popularity as they have the same benefits compared to conventional bicycles and, in addition, make cycling accessible to new user groups. With the growing number of pedelecs, however, potential for conflict also increases. Unfortunately, the majority of accidents cannot yet be analysed accordingly, as pedelec-specifiic characteristics are missing from the accident data. This fact in itself has already been proven as a barrier. Most accident studies focusing on pedelecs are based on police data from standardised accident forms [e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4]. Their findings can be summarised in the following key statements: Accidents with pedelecs are less frequent but more severe than those with conventional bicycles. For both, accidents on urban roads dominate, but pedelec accidents occur significantly more often on rural roads than conventional bicycle accidents. And: injured pedelec users, especially those fatally injured, are on average significantly older than injured users of conventional bicycles. But, standardised accident forms were initially designed for accidents with double-track motor vehicles, in particular passenger cars. Accidents with bicycles (especially pedelecs), are difficult to categorise with this systematic as important information is missing. For example, 'falling on ground' is not an accident category as cars normally won't do so, but for pedelec accidents, this information is fundamental. This acts as a barrier as bicycle-specific causes of accidents cannot be analysed. However, accident statistics are the most important basis for evidence-based measures in road safety work. The aim of this paper is therefore to identify and categorise pedelec-specific accident characteristics and to evaluate pedelec accidents on the basis of these characteristics to identify frequent and severe accident constellations. [From: Introduction]

City traffic planners are striving to adapt their infrastructure to not only increase the number of cyclists but also to ensure that city cycling is both enjoyable and safe. In Switzerland and in many other countries, it is suspected that only one of ten bicycle accidents is reported to the police [ 1-5]. Only knowing about 10% of the accidents, on top of the fact that there are luckily not many accidents from a statistical perspective, casts doubt about where efforts should be made to improve cycling infrastructure, and how effective the actions taken actually are. To deal with this lack of data, this paper proposes to use surveys of cyclists besides police records to obtain a more complete picture of the number and location of cycling accidents, including the ones not reported to police, and the locations that cyclists perceive as dangerous. The combination of survey and police reported data gives a considerably different and more complete impression of where there is potential to improve cycling infrastructure, when compared to that obtained using only police reported accidents. This work expounds how the survey responses about hazard perception and unreported accidents help provide a more complete overview of the accident potential of the existing cycling network and how they form a base of immensely useful inputs for planning improvements. [From: Introduction]

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