Teschke et al. BMC Public Health 2012, 12:765 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/12/765 reasons for ineligibility were not being a resident of the study city and being injured outside the city. Table 1 lists selected participant and trip characteris- tics. Most participants were men, younger than 40, well educated, employed, earned more than $50,000 a year, were regular cyclists, and had a driver’s license. Most of the injury trips were short and utilitarian in nature. Few participants had taken alcohol or drugs in the 6 hours Table 1 Characteristics of the study participants and the bicycling trips when they were injured (N = 690) Characteristic Male Female Age (of N = 685 reporting) 19 to 29 years 30 to 39 years 40 to 49 years 50 to 59 years 60 to 69 years ≥ 70 years Completed post-secondary diploma or degree Employed Income greater than $50,000 (of N = 610 reporting) Had children in their household Regular cyclist (cycled ≥ 52 times per year) Considered themselves an experienced cyclist Had taken an urban cycling training course Had bike maintained in the last 6 months Had a driver’s license Trip < 5 km Trip purpose Commute to or from work or school For exercise or recreation For social reasons (e.g., movies, visit friends) For personal business (e.g., shopping, doctor’s visit) Alcohol or drug use in 6 hours prior to trip Had less than 6 hours of sleep in 24 hours prior to trip During work Alcohol Medications Recreational drugs Cycling with a companion Injury circumstances Collision Fall Motor vehicle involved Crash at an intersection Number (%) 410 (59.4%) 280 (40.6%) 250 (36.5%) 177 (25.8%) 108 (15.8%) 91 (13.3%) 49 (7.2%) 10 (1.5%) 518 (75.1%) 546 (79.1%) 341 (55.9%) 104 (15.1%) 608 (88.1%) 529 (76.7%) 42 (6.1%) 525 (76.1%) 620 (89.9%) 470 (68.1%) 287 (41.6%) 177 (25.7%) 159 (23.0%) 126 (18.3%) 17 (2.5%) 73 (10.5%) 52 (7.5%) 25 (3.6%) 23 (3.3%) 109 (15.8%) 497 (72.0%) 193 (28.0%) 331 (48.0%) 211 (30.6%) prior to the trip, were sleep deprived, or were travelling with a companion. Most of the injury events were colli- sions (i.e., involved hitting a vehicle, object, surface, person or animal) rather than falls, and almost half involved a motor vehicle (one-third directly and 14% indirectly in avoidance manoeuvres). Most occurred at non-intersection locations. Use of safety equipment is outlined in Table 2. Light- ing was the least frequently used, with 135 (19.6%) parti- cipants indicating they had at least one light turned on, including 96 using both lights, 25 with only the back light on and 14 with only the front light on. Seven parti- cipants responded “don’t know”. Responses about cloth- ing indicated that 230 (33.3%) wore white, yellow, orange or red on their torso. There were 56 participants who responded “don’t know” and three who were not wearing clothing on the torso. We did not directly ask for information about use of reflective material, which is visible at night under illumination. It was self-reported by 59 individuals, 34 of whom were wearing colours that were not classified as conspicuous. Because this informa- tion was not directly solicited in questioning, reflective material use is likely to have been under-reported. Hel- mets were the most frequently used safety equipment with 478 (69.3%) participants indicating their helmet colour. Two responded “don’t know” and one person refused to answer. Table 3 shows the logistic regression results for factors associated with having at least one bike light turned on. The strongest relationships were for time of day: only 6% of participants had lights on during the daytime, ver- sus 44% at dawn or dusk, and 77% at night. Dull weather Table 2 Safety equipment use on the trip: bike lights; visible clothing; and helmets Highly visible clothing worn on the torso At least one bike light turned on Yes/No* At least one bike light turned on Highly visible clothing worn on the torso Yes No Yes No Yes No Helmet worn 135/0 0/555 49/181 86/374 102/376 33/179 Page 3 of 9 Helmet worn Yes/No 102/33 376/179 169/61 309/151 478/0 0/212 Yes/No 49/86 181/374 230/0 0/460 169/309 61/151 * Note that all “no” categories also include those who didn’t know or refused to answer the question; for “at least one bike light turned on”, 7 participants (1.01%) indicated they didn’t know; for “highly visible clothing worn on the torso”, 56 indicated they didn’t know (8.1%), and; for “helmet worn”, 2 indicated they didn’t know and 1 refused (0.44%);