MICHELLE QUINN, 19 February 2010, The New York Times - The Bay Area

In the winter months, with more darkness and creepy fog, I obsess about bike lights, reflecting strips and bike flags, which I use for my children’s bicycle trailer. If I could encase my biking operation in neon, I would to do it, even to the point of looking ridiculous. Anything to increase my visibility on the road to drivers. I’m on the hunt for battery-operated Christmas lights to wind up the bike flags.

Despite my precautions, I still face skepticism from others about the safety of riding in the East Bay, particularly with children. I worry as well that one day I’ll be in an accident and regret choosing to travel without the benefits of being encased in steel and all the other safety technologies the car industry has developed.

So I was intrigued by an article in The San Francisco Appeal earlier this week by Jackson West, who writes about cycling for the Web site. It looked at studies on bicycle safety and the notion that bicycling in urban areas had become more dangerous. The writer’s conclusion: The increase in the number of people bicycling in urban areas has outstripped the increase in the number of accidents, meaning that biking has become generally safer.

Armand Emamdjohmeh - Bicyclists traveling on Valencia Street in the Mission District of San Francisco around 2 a.m., New Year’s Day 2010.

A recent blog post at Oakbook highlighted bicycle accidents in the region. Between 2000 and 2008, a RAND Corporation report said, reported bike accidents in San Francisco increased 29 percent (19 deaths), 37 percent in Berkeley (1 death) and 38 percent in Oakland (10 deaths).

Of all bicyclists killed in 2007 nationally, 92 percent reportedly failed to wear a helmet, according to another report. In addition, 28 percent of bicyclists over 16 who were killed had blood-alcohol concentrations at or above 0.08 percent.

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