The leading cause of bicyclist fatalities (according to NTSB) is...

[ImaCynic]

Motorist Overtaking Bicyclist!

https://ntsb.gov/news/events/Documen...astructure.pdf

[mstone]

I guess the people who didn't feel safe with cars whizzing past were right, Forester notwithstanding?

I did find it interesting that their data has multiple categories for "cyclist failed to yield" but none at all for "motorist failed to yield". I guess motorists always follow the rules.

[lordofthemark]

I guess the people who didn't feel safe with cars whizzing past were right, Forester notwithstanding?

I did find it interesting that their data has multiple categories for "cyclist failed to yield" but none at all for "motorist failed to yield". I guess motorists always follow the rules.

To be fair, didn't Forrester say leading cause of cyclist crashes or injuries, not fatalities? From what I can gather (including by personal experience) collisions at intersections tend to be at lower speed (while hit by overtakers would be at higher speed) . While the former could still be fatal (esp with a very heavy vehicle like a truck) they are generally less serious.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

To be fair, didn't Forrester say leading cause of cyclist crashes or injuries, not fatalities? From what I can gather (including by personal experience) collisions at intersections tend to be at lower speed (while hit by overtakers would be at higher speed) . While the former could still be fatal (esp with a very heavy vehicle like a truck) they are generally less serious.

Rural or ubran roads? Rural roads will have speed limits over 45. Urban raods will have speed limits at 25. The latter is much more survivable. All the people I know who were hit from behind were hit on rural roads. One died. One barely survived.

[mstone]

To be fair, didn't Forrester say leading cause of cyclist crashes or injuries, not fatalities? From what I can gather (including by personal experience) collisions at intersections tend to be at lower speed (while hit by overtakers would be at higher speed) . While the former could still be fatal (esp with a very heavy vehicle like a truck) they are generally less serious.

Mostly I think he expressed personal preference via very poor datasets. Hopefully, though, we'll be able to move beyond wishing the world were different and actually designing safer infrastructure--the drivers sure aren't getting any better. (I'm not particularly optimistic about this, though, as things seem to be getting worse in these parts as VDOT keeps optimizing for vehicle LOS and "faster wider better".)

[lordofthemark]

Rural or ubran roads? Rural roads will have speed limits over 45. Urban raods will have speed limits at 25. The latter is much more survivable. All the people I know who were hit from behind were hit on rural roads. One died. One barely survived.

Hmmm.

The District of Columbia, is, just now, in 2019, about to pass a law to make 25MPH the default speed on arterials. And I believe there will be exceptions to that.

Here in the City of Alexandria, which is hardly rural, we have a handful of segments of arterials that are posted at 25MPH. King from the metro to TCW (King east of the metro is not an arterial for these purposes) parts of Quaker, Seminary, and Richmond Highway. Changing each of them except Richmond Highway was a battle, and there are still people who begrudge the lower speed limits - and people who are outraged at the changes in street design on King and Seminary to get them to function like 25MPH roads (IE people only driving about 30MPH, instead of up to 40MPH and beyond). There continue to be many arterials that are signed at 35MPH - I won't even talk about ones I don't go near that much, like Duke, but within walking distance of where I live there is upper King (which I ride on most days, heart in my mouth), Braddock, and Beauregard. At least on upper King and on Beauregard there are plans for a wide shared use path, which would provide a low stress bike route, but I guess that's a failure from the Forrester POV.

That's Alexandria. Arlington, though in many respects more progressive than Alexandria, is worse as far as speed limits, I think. Again, right near me, is Walter Reed - speed limit on the part near me is I think 30MPH? But there are worse all over Arlington. Plenty of arterials at 35MPH.

Did I say that Arlington is worse than Alexandria in terms of having roads with speed limits over 25MPH? Pardon, Arlington is much better than Fairfax County, where it seems you can't turn around without seeing a road signed at 45MPH. As if drivers on those actually never drove faster than that.

But you say, in an urban area you can avoid the arterials by riding on a nice slow parallel? In this region you can do that in DC (though giving up the state avenues will mean going out of your way) In NoVa, you can do that basically in Old Town Alex, in Del Ray, in a few of the oldest parts of Arlington, and in City of Falls Church. Trying doing that in Fairfax or in West Alexandria (or even in much of Arlington and East Alexandria) you will learn what a cul de sac is.

Oh, and I forget to mention that even 25MPH (as if people actually drove at 25MPH on streets posted at 25MPH) is fast, compared to many common intersection speeds, if its someone going/turning from a dead stop, or similar.

[DismalScientist]

I think the actual point is that if, as an extreme, all of those hit from behind deaths occurred on rural roads, the study might be worthless when it comes to a discussion of urban bike lanes.

[ShawnoftheDread]

I think the actual point is that if, as an extreme, all of those hit from behind deaths occurred on rural roads, the study might be worthless when it comes to a discussion of urban bike lanes.

How dare you be so succinct, sir. One paragraph, no parentheticals? That is not our way.

[lordofthemark]

What would we do without internet search engines?

https://www.callahan-law.com/blog/20...an-roads.shtml

"The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has published helpful data on fatal bicycle accidents that occur across the country. According to the NHTSA, data from 2010 to 2015 shows that a majority of bicyclist fatalities occurred on urban roads, as opposed to rural roadways. During this period, 69.6 percent of bicyclist fatalities were in an urban environment, while 30.4 percent were in rural areas."

[lordofthemark]

How dare you be so succinct, sir. One paragraph, no parentheticals? That is not our way.

I'm sorry. I look forward to the time when a listing of suburban arterials with high speed limits in our region can be done in one or two sentences.