Bike Accidents: Bicycle Advocate Weighs In

Santa Cruz, CA"There are no statistics regarding how many people ride a bike or how many miles are ridden because they only count us when we are dead," says Micah of People Power, Santa Cruz County's advocate for human-powered transportation. Alarmingly, bike accidents and bicycle accident injuries are increasing, but that's mainly because more people are riding bikes since the price of gas went through the roof. And all the more reason to take a good look at the public's perception of bicycle accidents.

Perceived Danger
"There is a perceived danger about riding bikes which is not entirely warranted: It isn't more dangerous than driving a car," says Micah. "However riding a bike is socially more dangerous: it runs against the grain of mainstream society. Young people don't view cycling as dangerous but if you talk to middle-aged people who drive, they will likely say it is too dangerous, even though they were likely riding bikes 20 years ago.

Major accidents and deaths are about the same per mile, whether you drive a car or ride a bike. (Of course a bus is much safer.) But a car gives the driver a false sense of security, and if you were to re-categorize cyclists who wear the right gear and follow the rules of the road (ride on the correct side of the road etc.) I would argue it is safer to ride a bike.

Who To Blame
Drivers don't notice cyclists but the fault lies with the infrastructure and city council. Our cities were designed around the automobile and even in a city with good bike paths and lanes, most cyclists spend most of their time riding streets designed almost entirely for autos.

Solutions
In my town, it is a question of space more than money: bike projects are outrageously cheap. City council talks about money; it says stores have to be bulldozed to make room for another lane but the obvious solution is to re-stripe the street and create a bike lane. The majority of bicycle projects amount to buying a few cans of paint.

Bike accidents can easily be prevented. For example, the 'right hook' is the most common accident for cyclists—a car turns right into a cyclist. There were 2 deaths recently in Santa Cruz, on the same corner but separate incidents and in both cases the cyclists were riding to the right of the truck (both have lawsuits pending). They were riding on Mission Street: four years ago millions of dollars were spent renovating this street without creating any space for cyclists. And this is a street that has 3 bike shops within 3 miles!

Soquel Street was worse than Mission Street: this was the scene of about 100 major accidents over a 10-year period—someone was going to die. But for decades we were told that nothing could be done. One night some cyclists painted bike lanes all along this street (no names mentioned).

Three or four years later we got our bike lanes, but not before spending thousands of hours at council meetings and task forces, etc. It amounted to taking out 20 parking spaces: The city was reluctant to make designated bike lanes because business would lose these parking spots—never mind how many cyclists could be killed. This is where peoplepowersc.org comes in: we pick common sense versus government sense.

For example, take curb radius: why are curbs rounded? If they were square it would be exponentially safer for cyclists and pedestrians because cars would have to almost stop before they made a right turn. Why do we have traffic signals for cars and crosswalks for pedestrians? Why can't pedestrians push a button and stop traffic?

Car Pooling
On a personal note, I have a driver's license and drive a car about twice a year. Between my wife and the neighbors they share one car and they use a tank of gas per month—that's between 4 adults and a few kids. It is my wife's car but when our neighbor's car broke, she offered her vehicle. The rest of the time we ride our bikes or walk. My kid is 2 and she walks everywhere; she knows where her friends live, she knows all the birds names along the river. I would venture to say that she is more in tune with geography and knows the lay of the land than kids who are driven everywhere in cars...

If you were a Martian and landed in Santa Cruz or anywhere USA and your mission was to report on how to transport yourself on Earth, you would tell your leader to rent a car. Half the raw space in an average city is devoted to cars—that is a huge amount of space. People say it is dangerous to ride a bike because we made it that way.

Our goal is to reform the infrastructure and societal expectations to make it acceptable to get around under one's own power—people power. Until there is a place for us on the roads, it is never going to be safe."

People Power is committed to helping government, citizens, and businesses overcome their dependence on the automobile. The organization is affiliated with countless advocacy organizations throughout the world that promotes the use of bicycles, utility tricycles, bike-trailers, skateboards, walking, and other non-motorized transit.

Contact: www.peoplepowersc.org , email info@peoplepowersc.org
or phone 831-425-0665