Montreal - Bike paths reduce injuries

Bike paths reduce injuries: study
Risk 28 per cent lower than riding in traffic
By MICHELLE LALONDE, The Gazette
February 10, 2011 5:02 AM
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Bike+paths+reduce+injuries+study/4255360/story.html

The risk of injury for cyclists riding on Montreal bike paths is about
28 per cent lower than for cyclists riding on comparable Montreal roads
unprotected from traffic, according to a new study published in an
international peer-reviewed journal for health professionals.

That riding on separated bike paths is safer than riding in traffic may
seem obvious, but there is growing debate in the U.S. and in some Canadian
cities about whether bike paths provide a false sense of security and
therefore increase risk, especially at intersections where cyclists are
unprotected.

In fact, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation
Officials has published a "Guide for the development of bicycle
facilities," which cautions against building two-way paths along, but
physically separated from, a parallel road.

The Montreal-based study, done jointly by researchers from McGill, Harvard
and Northeastern universities as well as the Universite de Montreal and
Montreal's public health department, was published yesterday in the Injury
Prevention Journal. The study concludes that cycle paths encourage cycling
and they lessen, or at least do not increase, crash and injury rates. The
construction of cycle paths should not be discouraged in urban areas, the
researchers conclude.

The study looked at six physically separated bicycle-exclusive paths, or
"cycle tracks", along Montreal roads (Brebeuf St. between Rachel St. and
Laurier Ave., Rachel between St. Urbain and Marquette Sts., Berri St.
between Cherrier and Viger Aves., de Maisonneuve Blvd. between Claremont
and Wood Aves., Christophe Colomb Ave. between Gouin Blvd. and Jarry St.,
and Rene Levesque Blvd. between de Lorimier Ave. andSt. HubertSt.)Someof
these are separated from traffic by raised medians, others by parking lanes
or delineator posts.

These were compared with one or two parallel reference streets without
cycle tracks that could be considered as alternative routes for cyclists.
The reference streets had approximately the same number of intersections,
traffic volume and speeds, cross traffic and heavy vehicles.

Overall, 2.5 times as many cyclists used the cycle track streets compared
with the reference streets.

For example, Berri between Cherrier and Viger, which has a cycle track,
was compared to the same stretchof St. Denis, whichdoesnot. Along that
1.4-kilometre stretch over a two-hour period, 763 bikes used the Berri
cycle track, while 134 used St. Denis.

Data on injuries were gathered from emergency medical response services
between April 1, 1999 and July 31, 2008 for the cycling season (April 1 to
Nov. 15). There were 74 injuries reported during that nine-year period on
Berri and 27 on St. Denis. Relative risk was then analyzed, taking into
account the different levels of use by cyclists, and Berri was found to be
48 per cent as risky as St. Denis.

McGill Civil Engineering Professor Luis Miranda-Moreno, one of the study's
authors, said it shows Montreal is right to provide cycle tracks, but could
improve their design to reduce injury rates. "We now have some numbers to
show (the city of Montreal) is doing something right, (but) this doesn't
mean there is nothing more to do," he said.