The Rise of SUVs Make Roads More Dangerous For Cyclists

So much for our roads going green. Not only have big cars seen a surge in popularity, a recent study found that they, SUVs in particular, are more dangerous for cyclists.

In the USA, 932 cyclists died in car-involved accidents in 2020 and majority of them involved pickup trucks, vans or SUVs. According to the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), SUV-involved bicycle crashes caused 55% more trauma than with other types of cars.

After previously determining that SUVs are more fatal to pedestrians, the IIHS set out to determine whether SUVs are also more fatal to cyclists. Referring to a study conducted in Illinois in 2022, they found that higher vehicles were involved in 26% of all pedestrian and cyclist crashes and 44% of the fatal crashes, but smaller cars were involved in 62% of pedestrian and cyclist crashes but only 38% of the fatal accidents. The deduction is that whilst SUVs might be less likely to crash with a bicycle, it is more likely to be fatal when they do.

Past simulation studies have found that bicyclists tend to suffer more head trauma when struck by an SUV compared to a lower vehicle. Lower vehicles tend to strike the cyclist at a lower point, causing them to impact the windshield which, believe it or not, is less injurious, at least when compared to hitting the stiffer components of the SUV or in the environment. SUVs are more like to throw the cyclist to the ground and also run over them.

“The fact that SUVs injured bicyclists with fewer components (and therefore over a shorter period of time), may explain the 13 greater injury severity in these crashes,” the IIHS paper states. To explain this, here’s a quick physics lesson: the longer the time it takes for the object/person to come to a stop (decelerate) after collision, the less the impact; the shorter the time, the higher the impact. Hence, car designers would include crumple zones to absorb the impact of collisions. But imagine a taller, flatter-front SUV hitting the pedestrian or cyclist, this “time” would be short and therefore the impact greater and more likely to be fatal.

Some good news is that the study found that the front-end shape of SUVs is the main culprit and a solution could simply be a redesign of this part of the SUV. Car designers, take note.