An interesting view about bicycle safety has long prevailed among traffic engineers: Cyclists are better off in the long run learning to ride in traffic with automobiles than having their own dedicated bike lanes. This counter-intuitive idea can be traced back to a certain John Forester, popularizer of “vehicular cycling,” who argued that bikers should learn to behave like drivers, writes Emily Badger in the Atlantic Cities blog.
Now comes research by Kay Teschke, a professor at the University of British Columbia, who identified injured cyclists admitted to emergency rooms in Vancouver and Toronto and tracked down where they had their accidents. It turns out that cycle tracks (bike lanes buffered from traffic) had one ninth the accident incidence of driving in major street traffic. Local streets had lower risks, while higher risks were associated with streetcar tracks, downhill grades and construction projects. (See the study abstract.)
The fact that Teschke was able to identify 2,335 injured cyclists at just five hospitals over a mere 18-month period suggests that cycling is a pretty hazardous activity. That said, it’s also clear that creating dedicated infrastructure for bicycles will make biking safer and more popular, especially among those who don’t fall into the daredevil, 18- to 25-year-old male demographic.
Bacon’s bottom line: Creating dedicated bicycle infrastructure need not be prohibitively expensive. Room for bicycles often can be carved out of existing streets. I have often heard it said that Virginia Department of Transportation regulations massively over-engineer Virginia streets and roads. That could turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Those excess widths may make it possible to carve out space for dedicated bike routes without harming vehicular traffic.
That sounds like something the Commonwealth Transportation Board should take a look at. I’m not holding my breath. While bicycles constitute one percent or more of Virginia commutes, even with our impoverished biking infrastructure, they get just about zero consideration in CTB deliberations. Maybe we need to organize a bike-in. It would be cool if a couple dozens cyclists showed up — with bicycles, helmets and spandex — at the next CTB meeting.
— JAB
