Casualty crashes are defined as incidents involving a fatality, serious injury, minor injury or first aid.

In that period six crashes involving cyclists were fatal out of a total of 221 fatal crashes.

According to a 2010 government review of cycling crashes in Tasmania, 86 per cent occur in urban areas.

A third of the these crashes involved a cyclist and another vehicle colliding at an intersection, while 16 per cent involved a cyclist riding on to a road without giving way, followed closely by side-swipes.

Given the urban location of most accidents the review cited more bike lanes and reduced speed limits as the best remedies.

Bike lanes are expensive and can be impracticable where space is tight such as along Hobart Road in Kings Meadows.

It is not surprising then to find this stretch of road was the only one in Launceston to record more than two bicycle crashes between 2005 and 2009.

The Launceston City Council recently missed out on $600,000 in funding to improve linkage between the CBD and Invermay, Mowbray and Newnham bike lanes.

``The connection for cyclists between the CBD is already better I understand this would have just made it al lot better, smoother and safer,'' council's bike committee chairman Deputy Mayor Jeremy Ball said.