Although 84% of cyclists wear a helmet and it is a high number, only 20% use reflective vest and lights.
The Law of Road Coexistence came to fix as mandatory the use of helmets. In addition to this fundamental element for security are added the reflective vest and lights.
However, despite the fact that its use is mandatory, there are still those who do not learn. A study conducted by the NGO No Chat in conjunction with the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Chile revealed the preferences of cyclists.
84% of cyclists wear helmets when moving through the streets. At the same time that 21% of them use reflective vests and 22% have some type of light installed on their bicycles.
The study considered the measurement of 2040 cyclists, where 1002 of them were observed in the morning and 1038 in the afternoon, corresponding to 29.5% of women and 70.4% of men.
AND THE OTHER OBLIGATORY ELEMENTS FOR CYCLISTS?
According to the information collected, 84.2% of cyclists use helmets (1718 cases), while 15.8% decide not to occupy it. Women slightly outperform men in this item, with 86.3% compared to 83.3, with the mornings also being the time when their use was most detected.
Faced with the use of other security elements, the figures are lower. 21% of the observed cyclists had some type of reflective material as indicated by the law, be it a vest or other type, reaching a greater number of cases during the morning shift, which reached 24.6% compared to 17, 6 in the evening.
The use of lights, duly installed on the bicycle, reached 22.7% of the cases. The highest number of observations in this item occurred in the morning, with 30% of the cases, which doubled the observations of the afternoon (15.7%).
“The low interest in using security elements, such as lights or reflective, is probably related to the confusions that existed on the reflective vests as a mandatory measure, which is false,” explains Claudia, director of No Chat.
HEARING AIDS AND CELLULAR
The measurement also included the use of hearing aids and bicycle holders on bicycles, elements that can cause distraction and generate road accidents. In the first case, it was detected that 32.9% of cyclists observed used hearing aids, almost identical figure if differentiation is made by men and women (33.19% and 32.2%, respectively). The largest number of these cases occurred in the morning, with 55% of these.
On the other hand, only 5.5% of cyclists used cell carriers, a practice in which men almost double women, 3.98% of them, compared to 6.2% of them, detecting a greater number of these cases in the afternoon shift (3.2% vs. 7.8%)
“It is worrying that three of every ten cyclists observed on average use hearing aids when cycling, because not only limit the sense of hearing isolating the cyclist from the environment, it also reduces the ability to detect potential threats or situations of risk,” explains Cristián Escobedo, one of the researchers who carried out the study.
“In Spain, the General Circulation Regulation, equivalent to our Law of Road Coexistence, recognizes cyclists as a mode of transportation and prohibits them from using headphones while driving, setting penalties of up to 200 euros, equivalent to talking on the phone while he drives. Neither of them exists in our country,” adds the expert.
Finally, the study also considered knowing the owner of the bicycle. Only 10% of cases corresponded to leased cycles via public or private applications or systems, compared to 90% of presumably own bicycles.