New York Post Columnist Rips Into Dangerous Bicyclists
by Lewis DerkinsJuly 30th, 2008, 6:27 pm
Today, Andrea Peyser of the New York Post slams bicyclists for the injuries and deaths they inflict on pedestrians.
We’ve covered this topic before, but Ms. Peyser has unearthed some new facts.
A spokesman for Transportation Alternatives, the bicycle-advocacy group, told me the number of pedestrian fatalities was “statistically insignificant.” I started digging.
Buried deep in a 2006 city report was the news that 11 people died after being struck by bikes between 1996 and 2005.
It probably doesn’t feel “statistically insignificant” if you’re the one who gets killed by one of these reckless cyclists. I find it odd that cyclists use this argument to defend their actions when that same argument could easily be used to justify cars killing bicyclists – something they scream about at every opportunity.
But this isn’t statistically insignificant if you do the math. In my calculations of the numbers in the same report Ms. Peyser references, Bicycle Fatalities and Serious Injuries in New York City 1996-2005, I found that proportional to their numbers on the roads, cyclists cause as many pedestrian fatalities as cars do, and bicyclists are ten times more dangerous to themselves than cars are.
After businessman Arthur Kaye was killed by a deliveryman in 1997 - the only case that got significant press - Transportation Alternatives revealed the truth: 500 people are struck by bikes each year.
That’s an astounding number, particularly since it comes from a bicycle advocacy group, and it fills in the hole in my earlier post – the injuries caused by bikes.
There are roughly 2,868,807 vehicles on roads in NYC (82,745 driving commuters in Manhattan and 1,820,000 crossing bridges into NYC)
During the study, 12,412 pedestrians were seriously injured as a result of collisions with motor vehicles between the years 1996-2003 (the only years the study had data for). That’s an average of 1,552 injuries per year. This means that for every 10,000 cars on the roads in NYC, 5.41 pedestrians were seriously injured in collisions with them.
There are 28,170 bicyclists on the roads in New York and they average 500 collisions with pedestrians per year. So for every 10,000 bicycles on the road, that works out to 177.49 collisions with pedestrians.
Not all of these collisions result in “serious injuries,” but since the data comes from Transportation Alternatives, I’m not convinced this number isn’t biased toward the low end – these probably represent the reported collisions, not the unreported, and the reported collisions are typically the most serious.
Let’s be generous though and assume most of these are not “serious injuries”. After all, they don’t have to be – if only 3% of these collisions are serious – then bicyclists are just as dangerous to pedestrians as cars proportional to their numbers.
I’m willing to bet that 3% is a low estimate and that the actual rate of serious collisions is much higher. This is a disturbing figure.
We see cyclists blatantly violate traffic laws that exist for everyone’s safety, glorify it, and then act as if they should be entitled to do this. This only hurts everyone, including the cyclists who are killed every year as a result of accidents they cause. Recent trends appear to show that cyclists fully or partially cause most of the accidents they are involved in.
Cyclists advocate for expensive infrastructure to enhance their safety – in New York, they’re spending $27.8 million in FY08 on bike infrastructure projects. Despite this investment, and a doubling of bike infrastructure, the number of bicyclist fatalities has not decreased significantly according to the New York study. In fact, lack of bike facilities doesn’t seem to be the problem at all - in 97% of the fatalities, the bicyclist wasn’t wearing a helmet.
There is a much more cost effective solution to this problem that will save more lives almost immediately.
We need to start seriously considering mandatory licensing of bicyclists in densely populated urban areas to get a handle on this situation, give law enforcement a more robust enforcement mechanism, and give victims some recompense for their injuries. This will help bicyclists too. It will legitimize them as a means of transportation – something that has been their rallying cry for decades. It will also protect them by making their actions more predictable to the people around them.
It’s time to stop the anarchy and carnage that a select few perpetuate on our roads.
Posted in Bicycle Lanes, Bicycles, Laws |
Does 1.22 deaths/year actually count as carnage? Is there any regulatory system in the world that has been justified on the grounds that it will reduce fatalities by some fraction of 1.22 deaths/year (assuming that any licensing program will not be 100% effective in reducing fatalities). This sounds just a tad hyperbolic to me.
Likewise, it sounds kind of absurd to suggest that a bicyclist licensing program would provide recompense to injured parties. I’m not clear on what sort of compensation mechanism licensing programs include. Surely you don’t mean to suggest that the mere act of riding a bicycle would be an aggravating factor to be considered when determining injury award amounts in tort suits?
Mind you, I’m not necessarily opposed to the licensing of cyclists. Nor am I opposed to the charging of tolls for the use of bike lanes, and the assessment of depreciation taxes and registration fees for bicycles. As long as that is all part of a larger program designed to rationalize individual’s transporation decisions.
Everett -
I would say 1.22 deaths per year combined with 500 other injuries including broken bones, concussions bruises and cuts is carnage considering the small group that inflicts it. And remember, that’s just New York’s number, there are accidents like this all over the country.
Would you say 23 deaths per year is carnage? That’s how many cyclists are killed every year in New York on average. How many people have to be killed by sheer preventable recklessness before we act to stop it? Only 23 deaths per year have induced New York to spend tens of millions on bike infrastructure and huge legislative efforts to restrict cars, why shouldn’t we do the same for bikes?
As you pointed out in a comment the other day -
“I’m all for making this an equal opportunity method of having everyone internalize the various externalities created by their commuting choices.”
You echoed that in your second comment above. For my part, I’m not interested in trying to legislate cyclists off the roads, but I think that right now they get away with bloody murder, and if we want some forms of transportation to pay their fair share of costs, everyone should be expected to do the same so that we arrive at the rational choices you mention.
As to your point about recompense - you’re right, I should have elaborated more on this one. I don’t mean to suggest that the licensing itself will provide a mechanism for recompense, but it is a piece in the puzzle that ultimately will.
Licensing coupled with mandatory registration and insurance, which you also said you favored, would provide that mechanism. The licensing and registration would allow victims of hit and run cyclists to track down the people who hit them. And the potential fines or loss of cycling privileges is an enforcement mechanism.
I certainly didn’t mean that simply riding a bike would be an aggravating factor in torts, but riding without a license may be per se negligence - though I confess, I don’t know what New York law says on the subject.
Finally!! An article and post that I can really get behind! I’m all for a licensing program for bike riders. I’m all for handing out tickets to bicyclist who zoom past red lights. I’m all for keep bicyclists off the sidewalk and on the streets where they belong.
If the bicycle is going to be used as a mode of transportation, then it should be treated as such. Just because it doesn’t have a motor or require gas for it work, doesn’t diminish the fact that it’s a type of vehicle and has the potential to injure and/or kill a pedestrian.
You guys (often rightfully) rail against government waste, yet you want to introduce even more bureaucracy to regulate cyclists? Come on! Car crashes, construction accidents, and falling from ladders cause more far more death and more serious injuries than cyclists.
I want to believe that you guys are advocates for sensible transportation decisions, but when I read words like “carnage” applied to one death a year it just throws a wrench into your arguments.
Granted, 500 injuries is no laughing matter. But again, we’ve got to put that number in perspective. It would be good to get a breakdown of the types of injuries as well.
Your “cyclists cause as many pedestrian fatalities as cars do” statement is also based on numbers that you say aren’t well researched. It’s a provocative point that flies in the face of conventional wisdom, I’d want better numbers to back it up. Why get so worked up based on a convenient extrapolation of inadequate data?
John -
I don’t think we’re really talking about all that much more bureaucracy. The DMV already exists, and so do all the tracking systems. How hard is it to develop a bike test and put a new designation on someone’s license?
We’re actually working on a post to flesh the mechanics of this idea out a little.
This isn’t about total numbers of car crashes - this is about the disproportionately dangerous impact that a relatively small minority of people have on the whole system. Look at those injury numbers - do you think it’s OK that less than 1% of the commuters cause about 25% of the injuries.
How many people are killed by dynamite in this country? Not many, but we regulate the hell out of it because it is ultra-hazardous. I’m not saying bicycles rise to that level, but let’s be honest, they are having a negative impact far higher than there numbers would suggest is reasonable.
Carnage is a strong word, but I’m not using it to refer to one death caused by cyclists. I’m using it to refer to one death, plus 500 injuries, plus the potion of bicyclist deaths that are caused when the cyclist is at fault. Cyclists have no problem using the same term at every press conference they throw every time a cyclist is killed, but they fail to mention that more often than not, the bicyclist is breaking the law and at fault. I think carnage is appropriate to describe it, and the worst part is that it is almost entirely preventable if we enacted the proposals I am calling for.
On your second comment - I don’t say those numbers aren’t well researched - I think that New York study is very well researched. The problem with the research is that it is one sided - if anything, better research will probably tilt away form bicyclists’ favor.
The numbers that I used for my computations are solid though - there were that many deaths and you can verify the census data. The only thing not covered in depth on those accidents is who is at fault. The study mentions that three of the pedestrians were crossing against the signal, but it also mentions that they were older adults - did they not have enough time and get stranded?
The bottom line is that this is the same methodology that the cyclists use to tally the toll that cars take - if it’s fair to do it there, why not here?
Here’s a Daily News op-ed regarding a recent violent Seattle incident in which Critical Mass was involved…
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2008/07/30/2008-07-30_put_the_brakes_on_these_bicyclists.html
http://www.forgotten-ny.com
The more I learn about the Seattle incident, the more it sounds like a full blown riot.