Comparison of human injury differences in vehicle-riding/pushing bicycle accidents

Abstract

To support regulations related to cyclists dismounting and pushing across motor vehicle lanes, this study first extracted posture parameters for riding/pushing through physical experiments, then simplified the posture parameters and extracted typical postures with distinguishability. Finally, simulated experiments were designed to compare the differences in human injury between riding and pushing in collision accidents. The physical experiment found that the bicycle controller’s (individuals who ride or push bicycles) forward leaning angle of the back (referred to as the ‘back angle’) when riding can be estimated by the ratio of saddle height to bicycle handlebar height, but the back angle when pushing is not affected by other parameters. Eight typical postures containing only lower limb posture parameters were then identified, and statistical analysis showed significant differences in over 80% of parameters among the postures. Through simulated experiments, the rider’s tolerable saddle height was identified. Even at this saddle height, the injury in riding state was still significantly higher than that in the pushing state, indicating that pushing the bicycle across the motor vehicle lane can reduce the injury to the bicycle controller. The research results not only support relevant regulations, but also provide typical postures for the bicycle controller in vehicle-bicycle collision experiments in the future, and have certain theoretical and practical value.

Keywords:

• Vehicle-bicycle accident
• riding posture
• pushing posture
• injury comparison
• MADYMO

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [51775056], the Natural Science Foundation of Changsha [kq2208225], and the Key Project of Education Department of Hunan Province [22A0236].