Portland Auto Accident Attorney

Bicycle, Pedestrian and Car Accidents

Pedestrian and bicycle accident statistics are not congruent with other vehicle statistics. Pedestrian and bicycle traffic "account for about 14 percent of roadway fatalities, despite being only 10 percent of all trips:"

In addition to the need to improve livability and mobility, the United States has room for improvement on safety for nonmotorized traffic. According to the most recent U.S. National Household Travel Survey (2001), about 1 percent of all travel trips are by bicycle, with around 9 percent on foot. And yet in 2008 more than 5,000 pedestrians and bicyclists were killed on U.S. roadways. Thus, walking and bicycling account for about 14 percent of roadway fatalities, despite being only 10 percent of all trips [...] [1]

The 630 pedalcyclist deaths in 2009 accounted for 2 percent of all traffic fatalities during the year. [3]

Cycle Paths, or Bike Buffer Zones

One exciting roadway design safety improvement that is getting more popular to at least experiment with are "cycle tracks." Cycle Tracks are essentially a separated or buffered bike path and many cities, countries etc. might have a unique name for the similar idea of a fully separated bike path. Like "Green bike boxes," cycle tracks got their start in Europe. New York City has several fully separated and protected bicycle paths, while new bike path projects continue to grow. In addition NYC continues to add bike lanes throughout the city. Long Beach, California will debut their own "separated bike path" this spring. Meanwhile, the area around Portland State University has been hosting its own bike boulevard experiment over the last several months.

Bike buffer zones have shown promising results in reducing car and bicycle accident injuries.

Still some worry that intersections will continue to pose the same or even increased visibility dangers with the separated bike paths.

[...] Cycle tracks, which basically create separate facilities for bicyclists so they are not sharing space with motorists or pedestrians, are a common feature in cities like Copenhagen. [1]

The below picture is a cycle track in New York City. In New York they call these buffered bike lanes. You can see the familiar Green bike lane also. The car parking is to the right of the cyclists. The buffer zone is the area where current bike lane design can leave a bicycle in a tight spot between car traffic and auto passengers and drivers exiting their parked cars. This problem is a familiar type of accident to bicyclists and it is often referred to as 'getting doored.' The bicycle path is further protected by islands where some street have planted gardens. Ahead of the pictured cyclists below, you can see a pedestrian in the cross walk. Some say that this bike lane design offers increased pedestrian safety as well. You can see that the pedestrian does have to cross the bike path and that is a further distance for a pedestrian to enter the street for crossing which causes others to worry that pedestrians may have less visibility due to this physical distance. The picture illustrates a one way street for auto traffic and bike traffic but pedestrian traffic is of course two way.

Given what we understand about bicycle and pedestrian accident vs. trucks, we will have to wait and see how these experiments work in the USA, in these different versions of the same idea. If the intersections do pose new safety challenges with the bike paths, it will still be an important experiment and attempt to try and improve traffic safety.

Europeans haves been more successful than the USA in recent years, at making their roadways safer for pedestrians and bicycles.  The cycle path or separated bike lane idea as well as the green / blue bike lane markings came to the USA from Europe. Europe has been successful at improving bicycle and pedestrian safety.

[…] over the past decade, several European countries have achieved much larger declines in nonmotorist fatalities than the United States has during the same period. For example, in an analysis of 14 European Union countries, pedestrian fatalities declined by more than 36 percent and bicyclist fatalities by 34 percent between 1997 and 2006. [1] 

It's exciting to see Portland's experiment with the bike boulevard cycle paths as well as the implementation of the similar concept in New York City, Long Beach, California, as well as other communities with new plans going into motion.

Safety. We're always learning.

Sometimes our technological progress brings with it new sometimes surprising safety repercussions. For instance, with electric hybrid cars and even totally electric cars now a popular reality, especially here in Portland, in the live field test of these hybrid and all electric vehicles we learn that for pedestrians and bicycles these new silent vehicles pose new accident dangers. In fact, these new hybrid and electric vehicles appear to pose new threats to pedestrians and bicycles in very specific situations because they are quiet. Designs in the future may add noise to reduce the likelihood of these types of pedestrian or cyclist conflicts:

Similar to pedestrians, in crashes that occurred at very low speed, such as when a vehicle is making a turn, slowing or stopping, backing up, or entering or leaving a parking space, the incidence rate of bicyclist crashes involving [hybrid electric vehicles] HEVs was significantly higher when compared to [internal combustion emission] ICE vehicles [...] A variety of crash factors were examined to determine the relative incidence rates of HEVs versus ICE vehicles in a range of crash scenarios. For one group of scenarios, those in which a vehicle is slowing or stopping, backing up, or entering or leaving a parking space, a statistically significant effect was found due to engine type. The HEV was two times more likely to be involved in a pedestrian crash in these situations than was an ICE vehicle. [2]

Studying traffic accident statistics offers us safety tips we can use to help us navigate more defensively when we see a familiar set of warning signs. We will see if the continued safety study on hybrid electric / all electric vehicles will result in some type of safety design to compensate for the silence.

RESOURCES

1. Handy Lessons From Overseas on Walking and Bicycling

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/10janfeb/04.cfm

2. Incidence of Pedestrian and Bicyclist Crashes by Hybrid Electric Passenger Vehicles

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811204.PDF

3. Traffic Safety Facts Bicyclists and Other Cyclists

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811386.pdf