Improved safety for all

Cedar Rapids, IA implemented a road diet on four different roads that reduced the number of lanes of traffic. Using pre/post data, researchers found that there was no difference in emergency response times. Over half the EMS respondents in the follow up survey said the changes had either no impact or a positive impact on response times.

Protected bike lanes provide significant traffic calming in the form of max car speed reductions.

NYC DOT added 3.18 miles of protected bike lanes in East NY, Brooklyn. The subsequent traffic calming and shortened crossing distance reduced death and serious injuries for all road users (that’s drivers included) by 18.1%. For senior pedestrians the decline was 39%!

Covers University of Colorado research on safety benefits of protected bike lanes across 12 US metros.

Crash data from Chicago 2011 - 2014 shows that streets with sharrows have increased cyclist injury rates. Cities would be better off not painting sharrows and leaving the street without any markings at all.

Seville, Spain built a full protected bike lane network and saw ridership increase > 400% and the risk of bike and car crashes decline > 60%. The share of total trips taken in the area went from near 0% by bike to almost 9%, a mode shift size that’s hard to overstate.

Converting two-way four lane roads to two travel lanes with center left turn lane not only reduces crashes 19-47%, but can also improve emergency response times. Case studies from Ocean City, NJ and Woodbury, NJ demonstrate this; the former’s road diet also included a buffered bike lane in the design.

3 years of data from protected bike lane implementations around NYC show reduction of injuries for all road users. Everyone, drivers and their passengers included, are injured in crashes less often when streets have protected bike lanes.

Using video to count cyclists researchers found protected bike routes increased ridership from 21% - 171%. Survey data data indicates that 10% of those riders came from other modes of transportation. Overall 91% of survey respondents from all modes, e.g. cyclists, pedestrians, and drivers, agreed that separating bike traffic from cars was desirable. Both cyclists and pedestrians said they frequent businesses more often after the bike lanes were installed.

Investigation of bicyclist injuries in Vancouver and Toronto show risk of injury is ~90% lower on streets with protected bike lanes compared to those no bike infrastructure.

Protected bike lanes decreased injuries for all road users.

New Zealand made bike helmets required in 1994. Cycling data from 1988-91 and 2003-07 shows that average hours biked per person in NZ declined 51% and overall injury rates per hour biked increased 20%. There was a 75% reduction in biking for children 5-17 years old.

Then deputy mayor writes a memorandum on the popularity and safety benefits of bike lanes. The data comes from lessons learned building 255 miles of bike lanes in the prior four years. Some facts …

Even among unprotected bike lanes design considerations matter. NYC found that bike lanes painted green are safer than unpainted bike lanes.

Bicyclist injury risk is 28% lower on cycle tracks compared to streets without bike infrastructure. Cycle tracks also are much more desirable routes seeing 2.5x the bike volume.

From 1989 to 2006 New Zealand’s bicycle mode share reduced from 4% to only 1%. This coincides with a large increase in transportation by motor vehicle. During that time the injury rates for cyclists increased 20% while declined by 40-50% for all other modes of transportation.