Road safety: Cyclists in Sheffield among the most at risk of an accident, new study reveals

It ranks the city as the fourth most dangerous in the UK after experts studied data from more than 12,000 cycling routes and analysed the number of bike accidents, average steepness, surface quality, and lighting across the routes.

This created a danger score for each UK city and Sheffield was ranked fourth - beaten only by Birmingham, Newcastle and Plymouth.

The data comes from compensation website Claims.co.uk and it put Sheffield’s danger score as 7.08 out of 10. Figures showed the number of cyclists having an accident was almost 8.25 out of 10. The steepness score and dim lighting score was 7.75 out of 10 although the surface score was only 2.25.

These figures come as cycling in the UK has surged by almost 200% since Covid lockdowns.

Birmingham was the most dangerous for cycling, as the city racked up an overall danger score of 7.38/10. Cyclists were most likely to suffer from poorly-maintained road surfaces which scored nine out of 10 and steep pathways where less than 50% were equipped with optimal lighting.

These contributed to the city’s bike accident score of 6.75 out of 10.

In second place was Newcastle upon Tyne, receiving a danger score of 7.21 out of 10. Not only are roads majorly steep, cyclists stand a relatively high risk of being involved in road crashes as bike accident. The safest place to cycle was Chelmsford in Essex.

For more information on the study visit https://www.claims.co.uk.