Motorists give cyclists with childseats wider berth, finds study – Cycle Industry News
Mark Sutton19 October, 2020
A study into road safety behaviours surrounding the overtaking tendencies of motorists has concluded that a wider berth is given to cyclists seen to be carrying a child.
Dubbed The impact of a child bike seat and trailer on the objective overtaking behaviour of motorized vehicles passing cyclists the research sought to understand what effect on passing motorist the carriage of a child had on passing distance.
Compiling data from 19 cycling journeys on a single road with variables including time of day, type of child seat or trailer, infrastructure provision and traffic density, the findings were very clear, with a mean lateral clearance over ten centimetres larger where a child was present. The mean lateral overtake distance with a child was 128.8cm, versus 117.3cm without.
