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Alongside the surging reputation of motorbike shares and health biking in California comes a sobering statistic: From 2016 via 2018, extra cyclists died in site visitors accidents throughout the state than throughout any three-year interval previously 25 years.
Traffic accidents killed 455 cyclists in California from 2016 via 2018, in keeping with new knowledge from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The figures translate to about three.9 bike accident fatalities per million folks, the best price over any three-year interval for the reason that mid-1990s, earlier than many cities constructed in depth bike networks.
Nationwide, the deadly accident price was decrease, but additionally on the rise. From 2016 via 2018, 2,516 cyclists died in site visitors accidents, a price of about 2.6 per million folks. That was the best three-year demise price for the reason that mid-2000s.
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Experts level to a convergence of things for the upsurge: a sustained rise in how much Americans are driving, the prevalence of distracted driving and a pronounced shopper shift towards massive vehicles and sport utility vehicles. Some analysts additionally mentioned there are merely extra bikes on the street.
“There’s definitely been an increase in popularity of cycling,” mentioned Julia Griswold, a researcher on the University of California-Berkeley’s Safe Transportation Research and Education Center. “And then also since the economy has recovered from the 2008 crash, there’s been an increase in driving.”
With the unemployment price close to historic lows, extra individuals are commuting to work, intensifying the combination of vehicles and bikes on metropolis roadways. Bike-share programs at the moment are frequent in lots of cities. At the identical time, the advent of car ride-hailing services has led to extra drivers cruising round ready for his or her subsequent pickup.
“The more people are driving, the higher the probability of an incident,” mentioned Jennifer Boldry, director of analysis at PeopleForBikes, a nationwide nonprofit that advocates for better bike entry and security.
Exacerbating the dangers: Smartphones are ubiquitous in a lot of America, and thousands of people die each year in accidents attributable to distracted driving. Boldry cited a recent study by the National Transportation Safety Board exhibiting that “midblock” collisions — wrecks in areas between intersections, the place speeds are increased — are likely to trigger better harm to cyclists. Often, drivers concerned in these kinds of wrecks say they didn’t see the bike owner they hit.
“My conclusion from that is: It’s really tough to see someone if you’re looking at your phone,” Boldry mentioned.
In addition, larger autos like SUVs usually have bigger blind spots than these of smaller vehicles, making it harder to see a bike owner. They additionally sit increased, which may have an effect on the realm of impression. “Think about where an SUV hits you on a bike versus where a very low-riding sedan might hit you,” Boldry mentioned. “You get hit in the leg, the injury is way less severe than if you’re hit in the chest.”
As with different varieties of deadly accidents involving vehicles, male cyclists in America die in crashes rather more usually than girls. From 2016 via 2018 in California, nearly eight males died in biking crashes for each girl who died. In the state, males are about twice as seemingly as girls to commute to work by bike, the most recent census figures present.
Experts cited a number of methods to chop the variety of bike fatalities, beginning with a comparatively easy repair: lowering pace limits. “Most people are going to survive a crash if they’re hit at 20 miles an hour,” Griswold mentioned. “But the survival rate drops considerably with each increase in speed above that.”
Investing in acceptable infrastructure — set as much as help a mixture of autos, transit, bikes and pedestrians — is one other key. The current NTSB research requires growing the variety of separated bike lanes and well-marked intersections. Boldry famous that elevated bike ridership, particularly when mixed with good infrastructure, can really improve security. The causes for which might be unclear, Boldry mentioned, nevertheless it may very well be, partly, as a result of drivers get used to seeing bikes and undertake safer driving behaviors.
Dave Snyder, government director of the California Bicycle Coalition, or CalBike, mentioned many California cities have made vital progress in bettering infrastructure lately, leading to safer roads for cyclists. Still, he mentioned, extra must be carried out in additional locations.
Some folks “see 2,000-pound or larger vehicles going 40 to 60 miles per hour within a few feet of them, and they think, ‘No way. That’s not safe, and it’s not fun,’” Snyder mentioned. “There’s no reason why that has to be. There’s no reason why we can’t create networks of bikeways, even on the main streets, that are protected from that high-speed traffic.”
Another method to decrease fatalities is thru expertise. The NTSB report recommends that cyclists use reflective gear and bike helmets. Automobile sensors that may detect objects in a driver’s blind spot are additionally a boon, although that expertise is usually higher at seeing vehicles than at seeing bikes and other people.
Boldry mentioned relying extensively on these programs getting higher as an alternative of bettering infrastructure could be a mistake.
“We’re optimistic that will help, but we want to make sure we’re doing everything we can on the design front to eliminate those conflicts from happening in the first place while we’re waiting on the technology to get good enough to have a positive impact,” she mentioned.
Phillip Reese is an information reporting specialist and an assistant professor of journalism at California State University-Sacramento.
This KHN story first printed on California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation.
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