Mountain Biking Management Practice Guide John Ireland, Visitor Safety Review Co-Ordinator

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment2 The Customers in Action from - family

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment3 More Customers in Action

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment4 To the Extreme

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment5 Outputs - produced by February 08

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment6 Outputs - produced by February 08 To provide best practice guidance on managing mountain bike facilities. Guidance needs to cover the management of existing facilities, including legal and health and safety considerations, how to manage conflicting land-uses by different user groups, how to go about setting up new mountain bike facilities, and how to control unauthorised construction. [Detailed guidance and specifications on the building and construction of facilities/apparatus would be in linked supporting publications, not in this management/best practice guide].

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment7 Outputs - produced by February 08 The core reason behind this document is to aim and strive for a sustainable pragmatic approach to the subject that benefits both the land manager and the user. If you follow the process outlined within this guidance you will get a good result. Audience: FC and private forest and other land managers. Community groups/cyclists

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment8 What will you find in the guide? 1. Introduction Background Mountain biking as a sport/description of disciplines Benefits of mountain biking Recognition of risk inherent in the sport Importance of safety and planning...

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment9 What will you find in the guide? 2. Legal framework Health and safety legislation (GB wide) Access issues (different in countries CRoW, etc) Consideration of other forest users

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment10 What will you find in the guide? 3. Planning a mountain bike trail/facility Introduction to different types of trail Issues/considerations Description of the ‘8 stages of planning’

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment11 What will you find in the guide? 3.1Initiation You need to set up a project team with specialist team members experienced in the required skills to initiate, follow through and complete the project. 3.2 Design and Planning You must capture the key information about: The site; Its status; and most importantly What is the long term objective? And why you want to build it in the first place. 3.3 Detailed information gathering It is essential that you evaluate the trail route to gather site specific information on the design of the trail.

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment12 What will you find in the guide? 3.4 Creating a specification - in house or contract? using contractors, inspection regime, budget, OGB Tender and Award OGB3 3.6 Construction process - fitness for purpose, testing, trail opening, sign-off etc 3.7 completing work - record keeping, maintenance 3.8 Monitoring & evaluation Planning ongoing management

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment13 What will you find in the guide? 4. Managing/controlling unauthorised building by mountain bikers 5. References and Useful sources of information Glossary Appendices

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment14 Format of the guide It will be an interactive PDF software system The document will sit on the FC Internet system and be effectively accessed by FC Staff,general public and other interested bodies. The information within the document, links etc can be easily navigated around and the relevant sections and topics found and printed if required or stored in an electronic format on appropriate devices e.g. pda memory stick etc and accessed in the field.

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment15 Format of the guide This style of system I believe will be a highly appropriate format to present the Mountain Bike Management Practice guide as opposed to the more traditional route of printed material. It will be easy to update and manage.

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment16 Format of the guide A real strength of the system is the ability to link easily to other web sites and organisations that feed and influence the subject as well as other FC sites. You can also easily distribute the whole document as a hard copy on CD /memory stick for example at conferences / meetings etc. The first draft of both documents has been through internal and external peer review and is currently being revised. External feedback is that we are producing guidance that is not just nationally significant but will also be internationally definitive.

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment17 Key points in the management of Cycle Trails

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment18 Key points in the management of Cycle Trails

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment19 Risk and management of facilities and the natural environment Use and management of facilities and the natural environment can be complex. For cycling facilities we have identified that features used by visitors can have a complex management pattern. In simple terms they can be:  Forestry Commission facilities, such as a way marked single track trail;  user built facilities such as a dirt jump park or;  part of the natural environment that is largely unmanaged such as a steep rock face used by downhill riders. In practice the situation is much more complex and we have identified 7 models of management with varying levels of duty of care and business risk. Diagram 1 sets out the overlapping responsibilities and table 2 sets out the associated business risk and duty of care. NB these examples need to be seen as a continuum not with hard edges as the degree of management by the Forestry Commission or user group will vary considerably from site to site

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment20 Diagram1 Interaction between ownership models in Cycling

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment21 Table 2 - Business risk compared to duty of care for different management models.

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment22 This table highlights that the land manager has the highest duty of care when we are providing facilities for the visitors. It is reasonable to expect that these locations will be well managed and that the visitor will be as safe as possible with risks and hazards largely managed by the land manager. In the natural environment it is reasonable for the land manager to expect visitors to take greater responsibility for their own actions and manage the risks associated with their activity and as a result they have a lower duty of care. Business risk compared to duty of care for different management models.

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment23 Types of Cycling,likely hood of an Accident and Associated Business Risk

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment24 Types of cycling,likely hood of an accident and associated business risk

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment25 Duty of Care Forestry Commission has the highest duty of care when we are providing facilities, it is reasonable to expect that these locations will be :- well managed and that visitor safety will be as safe as possible with risks and hazards largely managed by the Forestry Commission

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment26 Forestry Commission must manage challenging cycle areas to a level of acceptable risk and ensuring that the hazards are clearly identified before entering the site. Ensuring that less experienced cyclists are fully informed about hazards on trails and where possible provided with easy trails to build up their experience. Duty of Care

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment27 Where visitors have worked with land managers to develop their own facilities or services the duty of care is shared between the visitor and the land manager. However the land manager may have less control over quality and there may be increased risks associated with the facilities. Also a general visitor to the facility may see these as the land manager’s facilities and expect the same quality of management and risk associated with other facilities that are run solely run by the land manager. It is in these visitor-developed facilities that land managers have the highest business risk. Business risk compared to duty of care for different management models.

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment28 Physical Risk Mountain biking can be a dangerous sport, and taking a few risks is part of the attraction to many who take part. Mountain biking remains popular, particularly among men, and is considered a hazardous activity. The main risks are from:  the constantly varying trail surfaces;  varying terrain;  natural and man-made obstacles; and  a rider’s speed.

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment29 Physical Risk We should see fewer injuries in future as improvements are made in: safety equipment, like helmets, gloves and pads; rider training; trail design and construction techniques; and more trails available to help riders improve their skills. but this will depend on rate of growth of the sport and overall skills levels

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment30 Accidents We have a reporting system for serious accidents and accidents where it is considered that there are lessons to be learnt. Within this system the number of reported accidents involving members of the public is increasing: The Compensation Act 2006 has attempted to reduce ‘ambulance chasing’ activity making it clear that courts should consider what standard of care is reasonable in a claim for negligence or breach of statutory duty. When considering what is reasonable they can take into account whether requiring particular steps to be taken to meet the standard of care would prevent or impede a desirable activity from taking place.

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment31 Accidents As well as the number of accidents involving members of the pubic we need to consider the severity of the accidents. The types of injuries for bike accidents in 2006/07 include:  fractures,  concussion,  facial injuries,  suspected neck/spinal injuries,  1 fatal accident. 226 Cycle accidents on FC ground in total in GB 06/07 that we know about The majority of these were fractures and concussions

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment32 Cycling Accidents to 06-07

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment33 Cycling Accidents to Cycling accidents reported to the FC have continued to rise in number – an increase of 502% over 4 years. All member of the public accidents reported to the FC over the same period have increased by 123%. As an organisation we only find out about a small proportion of accidents on FC land

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment34 Cycling Accidents detailed study 1st July - 30th Sept 07 at one trail location in Scotland

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment35 Type Cycling Accidents detailed study 1st July - 30th Sept 07 at one trail location in Scotland (hospital treated)

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment36 Landowners role Ensure that your current guidance and best practice for recreational facilities are being rigorously implemented and support your staff in doing this. If you don't do what you have said you will do then the Business risk (prosecution, claim & bad PR) is high. Planning, Planning, Planning is the key to success whether it be a new build / maintenance or further development of an existing facility

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment37 Example of current signage

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment38 Example of the Trail grading system

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment39 “Is this for you”

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment40 Example of a Dirt jump facility

23/10/2007Safety Health & Environment41 Example of a well constructed Dirt jump facility