Useful Links and Advice

See below for useful contacts and web sites for more details / information on various topics. One link you might want to store among your favourites is our Facebook page www.facebook.com/gloscitycc/

Our right to be on the road

10 Common Questions about Cycling

Safety

Is cycling dangerous? No, in general cycling in Britain is a relatively safe activity. Using official police reported road casualty figures, road traffic reports, population statistics, and the National Travel Survey Cycling UK calculated that, on average, over 2012-2016:

one cyclist was killed on Britain’s roads for every thirty million miles traveled by cycle – the equivalent of well over 1,000 times around the world
there were around 9.4 million cycle trips for every cycle death
the general risk of any severity while cycling was just 0.05 per 1,000 hours of cycling.
According to a paper that looked at sports injuries, tennis is riskier than “outdoor cycling” with 5 injures per thousand hours against 3.5 for cycling. Rowing machine exercise came in at 6 injuries per thousand hours.
The health benefits of cycling far outweigh the injury risks, by between 13 and 15 to 1, according to various studies (and depending on the benefits/disbenefits considered).

The graph below shows the numbers of cyclists injured on the roads of Gloucestershire.

A map of incidents in which road users were killed or seriously injured (KSI)

St Johns ambulance 1^st aid for cyclists app

In Case of Emergency tags

How best to call the Emergency services

How best to report your location, using the what3words app

A site to report collisions and near-misses

Some advice on keeping your bones strong

The Definitive Guide to Safer Cycling

A Practical Guide to Road Safety

How close to the kerb should you ride?

Navigational aids

Trid and tested routes to the Club’s favourite pubs and cafes can be found under the Club Rides tab on our web page. The table contains routes as links to RideWithGPS. Many of the cafe locations are linked to a map in the grid reference column.

On line Ordnance Survey Maps

Some tips from Cycling UK on riding in Gloucestershire and Bristol

A crowd sourced free map with marked cycle paths Open Street Maps and here’s one way to download it to your Garmin Edge GPS unit. There’s apparently another way at https://extract.bbbike.org/

A map showing where people actually ride: Strava Heat Map

An interesting way of comparing modern and historic maps Know Your Place

A useful route plotting service Ridewithgps

A guide to various GPS devices

A range of local cycle maps is available from ThinkTravel here

Roads and Highways

Gloucestershire County Council’s Major Projects

Gloucestershire’s Cycle Map showing planned and installed infrastructure

Where to report Potholes and what to do if you hit one

Gloucester City Problem reporting by email to heretohelp@gloucester.gov.uk

Report problems on the County’s roads County at the website, by email or phone 08000 514514

See where road works are taking place

General issues (parking, streets, transport) in Gloucester City

Helmets

Although helmets are, and can only be, designed to withstand minor knocks and falls, not serious traffic collisions the Club’s position is that their wearing is strongly recommended, especially when groups are riding close and fast, such as in the chain gang, or when off road. However, it remains a personal decision. To help you make that decision here are some facts relating to helmet wear:

British Medical Association and Royal College of General Practitioners are against compulsory cycle helmets – overall benefits outweighed by negative effect on cycling
Helmets are designed to protect from impact with motor vehicles.More than 90 per cent of serious injuries and fatalities involve impacts with vehicles. These arguments are summarized by Cycling UK here
Cyclists account for less than one per cent of head injury admissions to hospital. There are 4.8 times more car occupants who die of head injuries than cyclists, 4.6 times more pedestrians and 1.5 times more motorcyclists (Thornhill et al, British Medical Journal, 2000; Mayer Hillman, Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, 1993).

An excellent source of further information is at helmets.org