Female cyclists are more at risk of accidents on the road -- because they find it harder to look over their shoulders.

This was one of the unusual findings in a new report detailing the thoughts of 5,000 cyclists in Oxford and Cambridge, on how Cycling could be made more attractive.

The survey was commissioned by a group of organisations led by Oxfordshire County Council and Cambridge City Council.

One third of respondents had suffered an accident in the past year, but 72 per cent escaped actual injury.

The survey revealed around 40 per cent of cyclists had not had an accident in the past 10 years.

David Robertson, county council cabinet member for transport, said: "There is a lot to learn from this survey both for the authorities and the individual cyclists.

"We plan to use these findings to improve conditions and training advice, particularly through links with our partners on the project."

The most serious types of accidents involved a vehicle overtaking a cyclist. Women seemed more likely than men to have these types of accident.

More women than men find it hard to look back over their shoulders and to tell when it is safe to pull in to traffic.

More work needs to be done to understand why this is the case. Women are also less likely than men to undertake routine maintenance on bicycles.

The most common type of incident was slipping or skidding due to a hazard such as a pothole, metal cover, ice, loose gravel, a greasy road or a low kerb at a shallow angle.

The Oxford and Cambridge Cycling Survey was conducted by Dr Ian Walker, of Bath University, on behalf of Oxfordshire County Council.

Last week was National Bike Week and the survey follows demands by Green city councillor Craig Simmons to reverse the decline in cycling.

According to Mr Simmons, cycling in the county has declined in recent years from around 9.5 per cent to 7.6 per cent of all journeys to work over the last 20 years.

Mr Simmons, a keen cyclist, said: "The county is utterly failing to meet the needs of cyclists.

"Despite the fact that there are good environmental and health reasons for promoting and supporting cycling, we are seeing the continuation of policies which marginalise or ignore cyclists."