It's an encouraging sign that bicycle fatalities across the U.S. dropped for a second straight year in 2007 to 698 deaths, representing a 9.5% decrease from the previous year.
Of course, one fatality is too many.
Could it be that bicyclists and motorists are becoming more aware of each other and willing to share the road? We can only hope.
The annual report on bicycle fatalities (.pdf) from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration runs a few months behind, so we'll have to wait to learn if bicycle fatalities continued to drop in 2008.
Trends
The same agency reported recently that traffic deaths in 2008 fell to their lowest level since 1961. That's because people were driving less due to higher gasoline prices. More people were riding their bikes last summer. Let's hope that more people on their bikes didn't result in a spike of bicycle fatalities.
Researchers gleaned some trends from the 2007 bicycle traffic crash reports that we could probably guess already:
“Pedalcyclist fatalities occurred more frequently in urban areas (72%), at non-intersection locations (64%), between the hours of 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. (26%), and during the months of June (11%) and September (11%). ….
“The average of those killed in 2007 was 40. … Pedalcyclists age 25 and older have made up an increasing proportion of all pedalcyclist deaths since 1997. … Most pedalcyclists killed or injured in 2007 were males (88% and 83%, respectively.)”
50 states
The report lists the number of bicycle fatalities in all 50 states, with comparisons to total traffic fatalities and population. The U.S. average was bicycle fatalities accounted for 1.7% of all traffic fatalities, with a rate of 2.31 per 1 million population.
A really helpful figure would be bicycle fatalities by miles ridden, but apparently there's no good estimate of that on a state-by-state basis.
Most bicycle fatalities
1. Florida — 119 fatalities; 3.7% of total traffic fatalities; 6.52 deaths per 1 million population;
2. California — 109 fatalities; 2.7% of total traffic fatalities; 2.98 deaths per 1 million population;
3. New York — 51 fatalities; 3.8% of total traffic fatalities; 3.64 deaths per 1 million population;
4. Texas — 48 fatalities; 1.4% of total traffic fatalities; 2.01 deaths per 1 million population;
5. Louisiana — 22 fatalities; 2.2% of total traffic fatalities; 5.12 deaths per 1 million population;
6. Arizona — 21 fatalities; 2.0% of total traffic fatalities; 3.31 deaths per 1 million population;
7. South Carolina — 20 fatalities; 1.9% of total traffic fatalities; 4.54 deaths per 1 million population;
8. Pennsylvania — 20 fatalities; 1.3% of total traffic fatalities; 1.61 deaths per 1 million population;
9. Illinois — 18 fatalities; 1.4% of total traffic fatalities; 1.40 deaths per 1 million population;
10. North Carolina — 18 fatalities; 1.1% of total traffic fatalities; 1.99 deaths per 1 million population;
Least bicycle fatalities
1. Delaware — 0 fatalities; 0% of total traffic fatalities; 0 deaths per 1 million population;
2. North Dakota — 0 fatalities; 0% of total traffic fatalities; 0 deaths per 1 million population;
3. South Dakota — 0 fatalities; 0% of total traffic fatalities; 0 deaths per 1 million population;
4. Vermont — 0 fatalities; 0% of total traffic fatalities; 0 deaths per 1 million population;
5. Wyoming — 0 fatalities; 0% of total traffic fatalities; 0 deaths per 1 million population;
6. Alaska — 1 fatalities; 1.2% of total traffic fatalities; 1.46 deaths per 1 million population;
7. District of Columbia — 1 fatalities; 2.3% of total traffic fatalities; 1.7 deaths per 1 million population;
8. Maine — 1 fatalities; 0.5% of total traffic fatalities; 0.76 deaths per 1 million population;
9. Nebraska — 1 fatalities; 0.4% of total traffic fatalities; 0.56 deaths per 1 million population;
10. Rhode Island — 1 fatalities; 1.4% of total traffic fatalities; 0.95 deaths per 1 million population;
11. West Virginia — 1 fatalities; 0.2% of total traffic fatalities; 0.55 deaths per 1 million population.
In the Pacific Northwest, Washington reported 14 bicycle fatalities and Oregon had 15.
More info
The Ghost Bikes project is a nationwide effort to leave white bicycles as memorials to those cyclists who have died. Learn more at the Ghost Bikes website.
A memorial bicycle ride for fallen cyclists is called the Ride of Silence and held in hundreds of cities around the world. The event begins at 7 p.m. on May 20; see details about locations and rules at Ride of Silence.
A website that shows common ways that bicyclists are hit by cars and the best ways to avoid them is at BicycleSafe.com.
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