The number of bicycle riders killed on our roads in the 12 months to November 2014 remains at 50, thankfully no increase on the 12 months to October, 2014 but undermined by a 9.3% increase over the year. Having just caught up with the October data, BITRE have released the November 2014 road deaths Australia data. Fifty cyclists have died on our roads during the past 12 months to November 2014. Families suffering the grief of lost ones. How many more families need to suffer before we take responsibility?

Fifty cyclists, whilst at least no change compared to my previous report on the 12 months to October 2014 it is still a 11% increase over the 12 months ended November 2013.

The Department of Infrastructure and Transport’s Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics publishes monthly, a summary report on road deaths in Australia. This issue is dated October 2014. The full summary report is available from my Dropbox.

Whilst my interest here is focused on the outcomes for bicycle riders, there were 110 road deaths in November 2014, a very disappointing and sad increase over November 2013 when 107 people were killed. For the 12 months ended November 2014, 1,185 people have died on our roads. Of those 1,185, 158 were pedestrians, 50 were cyclists (an increase of five over the previous 12 months), 202 were motorcyclists and 772 were motor vehicle occupants. Our thoughts are with their families, more so at this time as we approach Christmas. All these deaths could have been avoided.

While the average trend change for drivers and passengers continues to decline (-3.2% and -6.9% respectively) which is a good thing, for cyclists the trend is still upwards and increasing at 9.3% per year. We just cannot seem to get it right. Why do we keep killing vulnerable road users? Blaming cyclist is not the answer either – red light jumping is not killing bicycle riders; demanding bicycle riders earn respect is no justification for not ensuring their use of the road is accepted. It is simply not okay to kill and injury others, period and we need to make this clear as a society, we need a Police force and a judiciary that understands this.

Our National Road Safety Strategy is continuing to fail our most vulnerable road users, people, yes cyclists are people, people who choose to ride bicycles.

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