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Risk of injury for bicycling on cycle tracks versus in the street (Canada)

The objective of this study conducted in Montreal (with a longstanding network of cycle tracks) was to compare bicyclist injury rates on cycle tracks versus in the street. The results, published in the journal Injury Prevention, in February 2011, suggest that the injury risk of bicycling on cycle tracks is less than bicycling in streets. The construction of cycle tracks should not be discouraged.

Abstract

Most individuals prefer bicycling separated from motor traffic. However, cycle tracks (physically separated bicycle-exclusive paths along roads, as found in The Netherlands) are discouraged in the USA by engineering guidance that suggests that facilities such as cycle tracks are more dangerous than the street. The objective of this study conducted in Montreal (with a longstanding network of cycle tracks) was to compare bicyclist injury rates on cycle tracks versus in the street. For six cycle tracks and comparable reference streets, vehicle/bicycle crashes and health record injury counts were obtained and use counts conducted. The relative risk (RR) of injury on cycle tracks, compared with reference streets, was determined. Overall, 2.5 times as many cyclists rode on cycle tracks compared with reference streets and there were 8.5 injuries and 10.5 crashes per million bicycle-kilometres. The RR of injury on cycle tracks was 0.72 (95% CI 0.60 to 0.85) compared with bicycling in reference streets. These data suggest that the injury risk of bicycling on cycle tracks is less than bicycling in streets. The construction of cycle tracks should not be discouraged.

Bicycling could address obesity, cancer, stroke, diabetes, asthma, mortality and pollution;1 2 however, the bicycling environment is a limiting factor. The predominant bicycle facilities in The Netherlands and Denmark are cycle tracks, or bicycle paths along streets that are physically separated from motor traffic, bicycle-exclusive and with a parallel sidewalk.3 Due to the separation from vehicles afforded by 29 000 km of cycle tracks in The Netherlands plus other initiatives,4 27% of Dutch trips are by bicycle, 55% are women, and the bicyclist injury rate is 0.14 injured/million km.5 In the USA, 0.5% of commuters bicycle to work, only 24% of adult cyclists are women,6 and the injury rate of bicyclists is at least 26 times greater than in The Netherlands.5 The chief obstacle to bicycling, especially for women,7 children8 and seniors9 is perceived danger of vehicular traffic. This perceived danger from cars appears to be real,10 as corroborated by survey participants who prefer cycle tracks over roads.11

Cycle track construction has been hampered in the USA by engineering guidance in the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) ‘Guide for the development of bicycle facilities’12 which cautions against building two-way paths along, but physically separated from, a parallel road. AASHTO states that sidewalk bikeways are unsafe and implies the same about shared-use paths parallel to roads, listing numerous safety concerns and permitting their use only in special situations. Cycle tracks, which can be one or two-way and resemble shared-use paths, are not mentioned in the AASHTO bike guide. A long-standing, and yet not rigorously proved, philosophy in the USA has suggested instead that ‘bicyclists fare best when they behave as, and are treated as, operators of vehicles.’13 The details about cycle tracks in the Dutch bicycle design manual CROW3 and crash rate comparisons between the USA and The Netherlands 5 have been dismissed by vehicular cycling proponents,14 with arguments of non-transferability to the American environment. Cycle tracks have been controversial, especially due to conflicting studies with warnings of increased crash rates.15 The warnings, which in the USA result in striped bike lanes but not cycle tracks, come without any substantial study of the safety of North American cycle tracks. Using existing crash and injury data from Montreal, Canada, a city with a network of cycle tracks in use for more than 20 years, this study compared bicyclists' injury and crash rates with published data and bicyclists' injury rates on cycle tracks versus in the street.

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