showing 4 related works from this author
Under-reporting bicycle accidents to police in the COST TU1101 international survey: Cross-country comparisons and associated factors
2018
Police crash reports are often the main source for official data in many countries. However, with the exception of fatal crashes, crashes are often underreported in a biased manner. Consequently, the countermeasures adopted according to them may be inefficient. In the case of bicycle crashes, this bias is most acute and it probably varies across countries, with some of them being more prone to reporting accidents to police than others. Assessing if this bias occurs and the size of it can be of great importance for evaluating the risks associated with bicycling.This study utilized data collected in the COST TU1101 action "Towards safer bicycling through optimization of bicycle helmets and us…
Why women do not use the helmet when riding a bicycle
2018
Women seem to use the helmet when riding a bicycle less frequently than men. Two possible explanations for this behavior are that 1) it is less appalling to them because of lack of comfort or other reasons, or 2) they use bicycles in a more cautious way than men so they feel that they do not need the helmet as much. The present paper explores these two explanations in 5,691 cyclists that responded to an online survey conducted in 17 countries as part of an EU COST project. Answers to questions related to the two aforementioned explanations were analyzed graphically and three questions that showed the most conspicuous differences between males and females were identified. These were: ‘Helme…
Abiding by the law when it does not exist: The case of the helmet bicycle law
2020
To improve the safety of bicycle users, some countries have enacted, or considered enacting, mandatory helmet legislation. Of course, the enactment of such legislation in a country assumes that its citizens will be well-informed of it, and consequently, will use the helmet more frequently than before. However, in the survey described in this paper we found that many people are not aware of the legislation in force in their own country, or, even if they know, they may not necessarily behave as dictated by the law. Thus, the effects of mandatory helmet legislation may be somewhat different than desired or expected. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to ascertain the role of cyclists' knowle…
Psychosocial factors associated with helmet use by adult cyclists
2019
Abstract: This study examines beliefs about helmet use in adult cyclists from 17 countries participating in the COST Action TU1101 Project (Helmet Optimization in Europe – HOPE). A total of 5797 respondents were included in the analysis after applying eligibility criteria and data cleaning. Cyclists' beliefs were assessed by 25 items using a 7-point Likert scale. These items were factor analyzed resulting in a four-factor solution (Factor 1: Perceived Benefits and Risk Reduction, Factor 2: Perceived Disadvantages and Barriers to Helmet Use, Factor 3: Perception of Group Norms, and Factor 4: Situation-Dependence of Helmet Use). Results show that both beliefs and helmet wearing behavior diffe…