New Research: Cycling Lanes Make Roads Safer for Everyone

The largest study of road safety to date published in the Journal of Transport & Health finds that more cycling infrastructure makes cities safer for everyone, not just cyclists. Researchers proposed that the old strategy of increasing the number of cyclists should be replaced by focusing on building better infrastructure for them.

The study found that bike facilities act as “calming” mechanisms on traffic, slowing cars and reducing fatalities. Between 1990 and 2010, Portland’s bicycle share increased from 1,2 % to 6 % and the road fatality rate dropped by 75 % over the same period. With added bike lanes, fatal crash rates dropped in Seattle by 60,6 %, San Francisco by 49,3 %, Denver by 40,3 %, and Chicago by 38,2 %.

Cities Expanding Protected Bike Lanes Nationwide

After a spike in deaths, New York will add 250 miles of protected bike lanes.  The city will build the lanes as part of a $1.7 billion street safety plan to be adopted by Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council.  Other cities like Los Angeles and Washington are expanding their bike networks, but New York’s plans are far more expansive. San Diego plans to build 70 miles of new bike lanes while Cambridge, Mass., set rules this year to add protected lanes on all rebuilt roads. Copenhagen is the international model for bike infrastructure, with about 250 miles of protected bike lanes. 

Seattle - Census survey: Biking, walking and transit up. Driving alone down to 44.5%

"Walking, biking and transit is up to 39%, and driving alone to work continues its steep decline. Now just 44.5% of Seattle workers drive alone to work, down from 53% a decade ago. Even if the 2018 estimates end up being a bit high, Seattle is on trend for walking, biking and transit use to overtake driving alone just a few years from now, a feat very few U.S. cities have accomplished.”

Those opposing bike infrastructure in Seattle and Mercer Island pointed to a decline in these numbers in 2017 despite the record bad weather and the 2nd Avenue bike lane being closed for five months.   The 2018 data is in line with past trends that SOV usage is declining and area bike counts are up. 

ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION NEWS FROM WSDOT AND PARTNERS

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Local Road Safety Plan Workshops Scheduled

A Local Road Safety Plan provides a data-driven, risk-based method to prioritize locations for engineering improvements to reduce fatal and serious injury crashes. This course introduces local agencies to the concept and structure of Local Road Safety Plans, and shows them how to build a plan based on actual crash data from a city.

This course also introduces WSDOT's 2020 City Safety Program, which will release a call for projects in November 2019. This federal Highway Safety Improvement Program-funded program will have a systemic subprogram for low cost, widespread, risk-based projects in an entire city, or over wide city areas. Agencies will need a local road safety plan in order to apply for any City Safety Program funding.

Several dates and locations to choose from: Oct. 1 (Olympia), Oct. 2 (Bellevue), Oct. 3 (Vancouver), Oct. 22 (Wenatchee), Oct. 23 (Spokane), Oct. 24 (Richland) No Cost. Details and registration.