Why Bicycle Deaths Have Risen in New York Metropolis

Final 12 months was the deadliest 12 months for cyclists in New York Metropolis since 1999, based on new information from town’s Division of Transportation. A lot of the 30 cyclists who died in 2023 have been using electrical bikes, which have proliferated on metropolis streets in recent times. A complete of 23 individuals died using e-bikes, which is greater than double the earlier report for e-bike fatalities.

Critical accidents amongst cyclists went up final 12 months as properly, based on preliminary information compiled by the Division of Transportation. A complete of 395 cyclists have been severely injured, together with 79 who have been using e-bikes. That’s about 50 extra critical accidents than the earlier 12 months.

Regardless of this uptick, the speed of bike owner fatalities and critical accidents as a share of all bike journeys has been trending downward for a few years, suggesting that using a bicycle in New York Metropolis has grow to be safer over the long run. As of 2022, the speed of deaths and extreme accidents was about 16 per 10 million bike rides, based on the preliminary information — down from about 34 per 10 million rides a decade earlier.

Traditionally, most individuals who’ve died using bicycles in New York Metropolis have been killed in collisions with automobiles and vehicles on streets that didn’t have bike lanes, and that was the case final 12 months as properly. In response to a New York Occasions evaluation of preliminary police stories concerning the 30 deaths, many of the cyclists who died in 2023 collided with vehicles in areas with out bike infrastructure, no matter the kind of bike they have been using.

The rise in electrical bike deaths doesn’t seem like the results of a rise in e-bike ridership, no less than not fully, based on the Division of Transportation. And though essentially the most seen e-bike customers in New York could also be supply employees and Citi Bike riders, the bulk of people that died on e-bikes final 12 months have been neither. Just one supply employee died from an e-bike crash, based on the division, and 4 individuals died utilizing electrical Citi Bikes, based on Lyft, which owns the bike share program.

There was one issue that contributed to final 12 months’s spike in e-bike deaths that will counsel a shifting dynamic on the street: practically a 3rd of the e-bike riders who died crashed or fell with none obvious interference from a car or pedestrian.

Solo bike accidents will not be a brand new phenomenon, however the seven e-bike riders who died this fashion final 12 months characterize a major enhance over earlier years, mentioned Vincent Barone, the press secretary for the Division of Transportation.

The division doesn’t know what’s behind this spate of deadly solo accidents, however is in search of methods to enhance security and preserve tempo with the fast modifications e-bikes have delivered to town’s streets, Mr. Barone mentioned.

“We have been updating our street designs with creative new solutions, such as wider bike lanes that better accommodate traditional and electric bikes, as well as our educational outreach and enforcement approaches to better reflect the swift and dramatic changes in technology,” he added.

The velocity of e-bikes could possibly be an element, as may rider inexperience, mentioned Sara Lind, an govt director at Open Plans, a gaggle that advocates “livable streets.”

“There may be a learning curve that some first-time e-bike riders aren’t prepared for,” Ms. Lind mentioned. “It’s very possible that that learning curve, combined with the speed of the bike, exacerbates already confusing or chaotic conditions. Navigating a pothole or a suddenly blocked bike lane is more dangerous at a higher speed, emphasizing even more the need for better infrastructure as more people use e-bikes.”

Final November, the Division of Transportation and Lyft introduced a plan to reduce the top speed of electrical Citi Bikes to 18 miles per hour, down from 20. E-bikes, underneath town’s classification, are any battery-powered bicycles which have pedals and a velocity of 25 miles per hour or much less.

Whereas the deadly solo e-bike accidents might sign new dangers on the street, many of the bike owner deaths final 12 months mirrored longstanding points that town has struggled with: collisions with vehicles on roads with out bike infrastructure.

Most people who died in site visitors final 12 months have been both in accidents with vehicles or have been using in a single. Of the 102 pedestrians who died in site visitors, solely two died in collisions with e-bikes, based on the Division of Transportation; the remainder have been hit by automobiles and vehicles.

Among the many cyclists who died in a collision with an car, most have been hit by vehicles, like S.U.V.s, pickups, bigger field vehicles or tractor-trailers. General, vehicles have been concerned in half of final 12 months’s 30 bike deaths. In no less than six of these 15 incidents, the bike owner was killed by a truck that was turning at an intersection — often making a proper flip.

In a single crash, which occurred at about 11:30 a.m. on Could 1, Adam Uster, 39, was using a standard bicycle, heading south in a motorcycle lane on Franklin Avenue in Brooklyn, when he was hit by a flatbed truck because the truck turned proper at an intersection.

As a result of they sit excessive up and have extra blind spots, truck drivers usually can’t see cyclists, who can get trapped between the vehicles and curbs or parked automobiles, Mr. Barone mentioned. The town’s bike lane designers have been working to handle this challenge, he mentioned, with fixtures at intersections that drive drivers to show extra slowly, rubber velocity bumps and different measures.

Mr. Uster was one of many few cyclists who was using in a motorcycle lane when he was killed final 12 months. Greater than two-thirds of the cyclists who died in site visitors in 2023 have been on roads that didn’t have bike lanes, based on the Division of Transportation, and no less than two cyclists have been on roads with “sharrows,” that are street markings indicating that automobiles and bicycles should share a lane. Critics say these markers will not be sufficient to guard cyclists.

“Paint is not protection,” Ms. Lind mentioned. “Physically protected bike lanes are what actually keep cyclists safe.”

Sarah Schick, 37, was killed final 12 months whereas using on a street with sharrows. Ms. Schick was using an electrical Citi Bike on Ninth Avenue in Brooklyn round 7 a.m. in January. She had been using in a devoted bike lane that had ended and grow to be a sharrow lane. After ready at a site visitors gentle, Ms. Schick and a field truck each proceeded within the slender lane; they collided, and the truck ran her over.

The town has been portray fewer sharrows in recent times, Mr. Barone mentioned, however nonetheless makes use of them between segments of devoted bike lanes.

Final 12 months, town added 33.2 miles of protected bike lanes, essentially the most ever added in a single 12 months, Mr. Barone mentioned, bringing the full to 689 miles of protected lanes.

Philip Miatkowski, the director of analysis and coverage at Transportation Alternate options, a bike owner and pedestrian advocacy group, mentioned that solely about 3 % of town’s streets have bike lanes, and that the community is just too disconnected.

“Oftentimes, there isn’t a protected bike lane that leads all the way up to your doorstep, so you’re going to have to go off the protected bike path,” Mr. Miatkowski mentioned. “I think cyclists will, in the overwhelming number of instances, take the opportunities to take a protected bike lane if it is on their way, and safer, and not locked down or doesn’t have any obstructions.”