The accident frequency is noticeably high for those in the age groups 7-12, 13-15 and 16-18, equivalent to elementary, junior high and high school students, indicating that bicycles are a convenient means of transport for young people who do not (or are not allowed to) have their driver's license. Moreover, the frequency rises sharply as they move up to the next school level; from this, it can be seen that safety education would be effective at the time of their transition. In this age grouping, the accident frequency significantly falls after the age of 19, which may be the result of a shift from bicycles to motorcycles, cars and other means of transport.
Then, the chance of encountering a traffic accident during a bicycle ride gradually rises again for the upper age groups. This probably reflects the fact that many of the elderly people in Japan still do not have their driver's license. The low frequency for those aged 75 or older is probably because they generally do not go out very often by bicycle.
The time of day when traffic accidents occurred is shown in Fig. 7, expressed in percentage by age group, for the primary/secondary parties riding a bicycle. Note that the age groups presenting a similar trend have been integrated and therefore the age grouping is slightly different from that adopted in Fig. 6.
For the age groups 13-15 and 16-18, in which the accident frequency is particularly high as explained above, the incidence of traffic accidents clearly peaks between 7 and 9 o'clock in the morning−the time to go to school. These hours are also the period when adults are on the way to work and this is an additional contributing factor in this trend. This percentage is higher for the age group 16-18 (high school students) than that for 13-15 (junior high school students). One possible reason for this is that riding to school on a bicycle is permitted more often for high school students than for junior high school students. Meanwhile, for the age group 7-12, which also has a high accident frequency in Fig. 6 (elementary school students, equivalent to "12 or younger" in Fig. 7), there is no such a peak in the morning hours. This can be ascribed to a relatively small proportion of elementary school students permitted to ride a bicycle to school.
The peak in the afternoon is noticeable for the age groups 12 or younger and 13-15, at around 4 and 6 o'clock, when schoolchildren go home, go to prep school or go out to play. The age group 12 or younger in particular has the highest percentage of being involved in a traffic accident in the afternoon instead of in the morning.
The reason why most elderly people aged 65 or older meet with a traffic accident before it gets dark, especially in the morning, is simply that most of them do not, we assume, go out at night.
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