Harvard Study: Bike Lanes Safer Than Cycling in Streets

Harvard Study: Bike Lanes Safer Than Cycling in Streets
The study adds to debate over the safest way for
bikers to co-exist with cars on crowded city streets
By Scott James on February 10, 2011 - 4:55 p.m. PST
http://www.baycitizen.org/bikes/story/harvard-study-bike-lanes-safer-cycling/

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is promoting a plan for 100 miles of
connected bikeways that are separate from auto traffic – and now new
research could give that idea a boost.

A study by the Harvard School of Public Health released this week shows
that separated bike lanes are safer for cyclists than mixing with cars in
streets, resulting in 28 percent fewer injuries.

Cycling safety in San Francisco has come under close scrutiny in recent
days. This week The Bay Citizen released its Bike Accident Tracker, which
maps where accidents have occurred, along with the details, including who
was to blame. The information has prompted a lively debate (and, frankly,
it’s pretty addictive to play with the map).

Two weeks ago, the city pledged to remove two existing “sharrow” lanes
downtown where cyclists were expected to ride in the center of busy one-way
streets, surrounded on all sides by speeding car traffic. An investigation
conducted by The Bay Citizen showed that cyclists do not use the lanes,
citing safety.

The Harvard research was conducted during an eighth-month period in
Montreal, a city with a longstanding network of separated bike lanes,
and published this week in the journal Injury Prevention.

“These data suggest that the injury risk of bicycling on cycle tracks
is less than bicycling in streets,” the study’s authors wrote.
“The construction of cycle tracks should not be discouraged.”

Who would discourage such an idea? There are concerns about making already-
congested streets even worse for cars and buses, especially if existing
traffic lanes are eliminated to make room for separated bike lanes.

But SF Weekly reports that there is also some dissention within the ranks
of the bicycle coalition itself about separated lanes. Some avid cyclists
consider such lanes too confining, and if more ordinary folks start riding
bikes in the city, they’re going to get in the way.

“Experienced cyclists like to go fast,” wrote Matt Baume, “and they don't
like to swerve around kids and old people and fatties and tourists.”