In addition to working with cyclists here at the BikeLawyer’s World HQ we are also involved in Pedestrian Safety & Advocacy. I’m working on an article now called “The Law of Walking Around” which will trace a bit of the history of pedestrian laws and discuss the WEIRDNESS of current pedestrian laws in Ohio as well as current trends in pedestrian safety.
The local public TV news folks at WCET reached out to me as they are doing a piece on pedestrian & bike safety so I’m doing an interview with them this afternoon – should be interesting!
Statistically Ohio remains a SAFE place, generally, to ride a bike and walk around compared to other bigger states …but… we want MORE… and…
Ohio is also mirroring the national trends – MORE crashes and MORE deaths of cyclists and riders… a trend that started back around 2009 for ALL vulnerable road users, including motorcyclists…
VULNERABLE USERS
What do we mean by “vulnerable users” of the roadways? Basically anyone NOT encased in 2 tons of steel. People walking around, riding bikes or scooters, people on motorcycles… In some areas that would include folks on horseback…
Vulnerable Users have been far more at risk over the past decade and a half than in the several previous decades. Motorcyclists, Pedestrians and Cyclists have seen worsening numbers – more and MORE road violence fatalities, over the past 15 or so years.
Let’s go back a bit – say 50 years ago…
The WORST year for cyclist fatalities [before the past couple] was way back in 1975 [the year I graduated high school] when 1002 cyclists were killed on the road… but if you dig into those numbers as I have you see that …well… life was different in 1975… FAR more children rode bikes and FAR more children were KILLED on bikes… as the years rolled on Adults caught the Bike Bug in a big way- adults returned to riding bikes – racing got more popular – these crazy Ironman contests sprung up – Triathletes of all ages began training – touring made a come back – off road and mountain bike riding took off…
This data is from the IIHS Bicycle Safety Page… in 1975 64% of all cyclists killed were under the age of 20… and digging deeper we find MANY of those were younger kids darting out into the street. The bottom half of the data shows 2015 – 2023 and we see that kids are less 10% while adult men make up 80% of the cyclists killed on the roads today
As we morphed into a more Car Centric society, KIDS started riding less and started being shipped by CAR from play date to violin lessons to soccer practice to math tutoring and so on…
These societal changes are reflected in the crash stats… fewer and fewer children were being killed while riding bikes each year [YAY] but more and more adults were being killed… In 1975 over 600 KIDS/boys were killed compared to 200 adult men. By 1990 the numbers evened out [women and girls have always been the smallest percentage of fatal crashes]. Today 80+% of those killed on bikes each year are adult men… with an average age of the rider up over 40…
When we look back we see that the TOTAL number of cycling fatalities dropped significantly in the 80s from the high numbers of the 70s, and then dropped more in the 90s and kept dropping in the 2000s… until…
2009 or so…
And since 2009 or so the numbers…in Ohio and nationally … have gone up DRAMATICALLY as far as the. number of people killed who were riding bicycles or motorcycles or who were just walking around…
A total of 1,155 bicyclists were killed in crashes with motor vehicles in 2023, the highest number EVER RECORDED. Overall, bicyclist deaths have increased 15% since 1975 [1002 to 1155], but… critically have INCREASED 86% since reaching their lowest point in 2010 [629 – 1155!].
Most bicyclist deaths in 2023 (90%) were among people age 20 and older. Deaths among bicyclists younger than 20 have declined 88% since 1975, while deaths among bicyclists 20 and older have increased almost fivefold. In every year since 1975, many more male than female bicyclists were killed in crashes with motor vehicles.
Why?
Why are more cyclists being killed on thE roads today than EVER BEFORE?
Have cyclists simply forgotten how to ride? Are they doing Suicide Swerves into cars at a really high rate?
or… perhaps…
Have motorists gotten impatient- distracted – aggressive -are motorists in more of a HURRY today – are there many many more motorists than before, but not so much more road space?
Maybe the fact that cars and trucks have gotten GINORMOUS plays a role?
Look at that magic date in the timeline – 2009 – it’s a VERY bright line – fatality numbers went down for decades for cyclists…and pedestrians.. .and motorcyclists… since then they have gone up to record highs
Yet… Car/Truck OCCUPANTS started dying LESS frequently…
Per FARS data, from 1994 – 2007
1994 – 2007 – 14 years
AVERAGE NUMBER OF
TOTAL DEATHS – 42,155
Car Occupant Deaths – 33,007
Cyclist Deaths – 745
Pedestrian Deaths – 5025
Motorcyclist Deaths- 3235
2008-2023 = 16 years
AVERAGE NUMBER OF
TOTAL DEATHS – 36,625
Car Occupant Deaths – 24,666
Cyclist Deaths – 826
Pedestrian Deaths – 5689
Motorcyclist Deaths- 5201
This image is from a spreadsheet using the FARS data from 1997 – 2023. I added the number of fatalities in these categories and then simply averaged them over the time span… WHAT is going ON?
Serious, significant and dramatic changes – More and More DEATHS of Vulnerable Users and Fewer and Fewer Deaths for those in steel cages
What else was happening in society in that tight little timeline around 2007-2009 that MIGHT contribute to a decrease in road safety for the most vulnerable road users but improve safety for those in cars???
Hmmm… well… look at the user trends for say… Facebook/Twitter/Instagram and the sharp increase in users from millions to billions… then look at the sales of the magical devices that you can hold in your hand to look stuff up, download movies and photos, take photos, text, receive faxes and…oh yea… talk to others in a phone call… the use/trend of magic Smart Phones mirrors the use/trend of social media and the trend of fatalities … up up UP…
Perhaps, while looking at phones, people started driving just a bit slower…slow enough to kill fewer people in cars and trucks but fast enough to kill even MORE vulnerable users who become INVISIBLE to those driving with, in essence, a paper bag over their heads?
This data relates to only those KILLED on the road…not crashes, injuries, etc… I’ve certainly not studied this with any sort of academic rigor – rather, I am tossing this out there and looking for an explanation… and some HELP in trying to figure out the policies and changes that need to be put into place to KILL FEWER VULNERABLE USERS… I think there is a PhD dissertation waiting to be written…
Tags: bicycle, crash, data, fatal, injury, insurance, municipal liability, statistics
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