The most dangerous roads for cyclists have been revealed by campaigners who have called for junctions to be improved.
Research by Sustrans Scotland found that streets in Paisley, Erskine in Renfrewshire and Wallyford in East Lothian are the country’s most risky.
The findings, published by Sustrans’ Scottish Research Programme, will be presented at the Scottish Transport Applications and Research (STAR) Conference in Glasgow on Wednesday.
The paper - Cycling Safety in Scotland, Cycle Collision - identified locations which had a relatively high number of collisions, compared to the amount of cycling activity in the area, between 2005 and 2014.
It also assessed the severity of cyclist causalities at each location and scored this against the population size in each area and the number of people in the vicinity who had reported they cycled to work in the 2011 Census.
Out of the top 20 ranked locations for cycle collisions in Scotland, the research found that 19 of the incidents occurred at a junction or within 20 meters of one.
Roundabouts appeared most frequently for cycling collisions, in eight of the 20 hotspot locations, whilst seven of the locations were at T or staggered junctions.
Although the report found that Edinburgh recorded the locations with the highest number of cycle collisions over the nine year period, once researchers took into account the relative number of cyclists in an area and the severity of the collisions, they found that a greater number of hotspots were based in or around greater Glasgow.
This was because even though the greater Glasgow area had a higher urban population, the proportion of people who cycled to work was low in comparison.
The A761 junction with Arkleston Road in Paisley, which had three collisions over the nine year period, was ranked the most risky, followed by the A726/Parkway roundabout in Erskine where four collisions were recorded, and the A199/B1361/A6094 roundabout in Wallyford where there were three collisions.
Edinburgh had the most locations in the table – at the Drumbrae roundabout on the A8 in Corstorphine (eight collisions), the A7/Craigmillar Castle Road junction beside Edinburgh Royal Infirmary (seven), the A70/Juniper Avenue junction in Juniper Green (three) and the Burdiehouse Road/Straiton Road/Lang Loan roundabout beside the Straiton junction on the city bypass (three). All were in the Central Belt apart from one each in Dundee, Perth and Inverness.
John Lauder, Sustrans Scotland National Director said: “This research highlights the importance of having high quality cycling infrastructure in place at junctions, so that collisions can be prevented.”
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