A new study commissioned by the UK's department of transportation has cycling advocates asking why their government is spending so much money trying to convince them all to wear helmets. Recent reports have speculated in the victim-blaming vein that cyclists are at fault for wearing dark clothing, listening to music, or not wearing lights at night. About 6% of accidents, fatal or otherwise, pointed to these three issues. The overwhelming cause of biker injury fell on the shoulders of drivers. The study found motorists were solely to blame for 60-75% of accidents, while cyclists were solely at fault 17-25% of the time.

While these results seem obvious to us (after all, what cyclist would run a red light if it meant riding into oncoming traffic?), they come as a surprise to the British government. They might benefit from ad money being diverted to raising driver awareness instead of trying to convince cyclists to stop getting run over. We hope to see this kind of common sense in the U.S. in the next 10 or 15 years.