By Charles Pekow — Bike fatalities are declining in urban areas—but rising in suburban communities. The Center for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety (CPBS) analyzed 20 years of traffic fatality data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and found that “both pedestrian and bicyclist (serious injury) crashes have trended toward areas with lower population density, suggesting these pedestrian and bicyclist safety issues are migrating from urban to suburban areas, specifically collectors and arterials in post-war suburbs. Additionally, these fatalities are occurring near small-scale commercial land uses and in neighborhoods with high rates of poverty, high proportions of minority residents, and low levels of access to automobiles.”
Ghost Bicycle @ 20th/R & Ct. Ave. NW (Washington D.C.) in Memory of Alice Swanson. Photo by David (dbking), CC BY 2.0
Based on these findings, CPBS recommends that suburban communities improve infrastructure planning and coordinate more closely with neighboring areas to address these emerging safety risks.
The full report, Pedestrian vs. Bicyclist Fatality Patterns of Geographic/Demographic Shift, is available at: https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/86194
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Charles Pekow is an award-winning Washington correspondent who has written about bicycling for years in publications such as the Washington Post, Bicycle Times, Dirt Rag, SPOKES, etc. as well as Cycling West/Cycling Utah. He also writes frequently on environmental issues and beer, among other topics. Weather permitting, you’ll find him most weekends and some summer evenings astride a bicycle in a park. He is also a charter member of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.