23 million bikeshare rides and no deaths

Karolina Kurkova rides a CitiBike on the streets of Manhattan on July 14, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by James Devaney/FilmMagic via Getty Images)

A Reuters article reported this astonishing statistic: 23 million rides have been taken in US bikeshare systems since 2007 with no reported fatalities.

The author first looked at New York City’s Citibike program, and found no deaths in more than 10 million rides. The accident rate is equally impressive — less than 10 per million rides, with or without injuries. The author then investigated smaller bikeshare programs in 26 cities and found a similar story: few accidents and no deaths.

With the exception of New York City, these numbers are not confirmed and it is possible that the experts missed something. Even so, this is an amazing safety record considering that bikeshare programs do not provide helmets and attract novice riders including many tourists who are unfamiliar with the geography.

The article attributed the safety record to well-built, heavy bikes with good brakes that work in all weather and are geared to limit speed. Those are good, but insufficient, speculations. Motorcycles, the most dangerous form of transportation, are far heavier and have drum brakes as well. A good part of the safety is likely due to where these bikeshare programs are located within cities.

Bikeshare, like carshare, is only available in downtowns and other neighborhoods with high Place Mobility, as I call it. These neighborhoods generally have a very high Walk Score and offer multiple options for reaching destinations that are close by. The street networks are well-connected, the streets are older and narrower, and the automobile traffic is slower. That provides safer biking conditions than on wider urban or suburban arterial roads or rural roads.

Safety in numbers also comes into play. When bike share programs are instituted, it is safe to assume that the number of bicyclists on streets in specific parts of cities rises, which makes drivers more cautious. A recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health showed that the proportion of head injuries rose in cities with bike share programs — but that was only because overall bike injuries fell. “The number of total injuries, including head injuries, in the bike-share cities actually fell after programs were implemented,” as Next City reported.

Robert Steuteville is editor and executive director of Better Cities & Towns.

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