Why Bicycle Boulevards?

Why do we need to bring bicycle boulevards to Albany?

Here are a list of statistics from Bike Belongs of why we need to bring bicycle boulevards to Albany.

• After two streets in Minneapolis were converted to be more bicycle friendly, bike traffic increased 43%, total vehicle crashes decreased, traffic efficiency was maintained, and parking revenues remained consistent.

City of Minneapolis, 2010
Hennepin and 1st avenues two-way conversion leads to fewer crashes, better access

• When protected bike lanes are installed in New York City, injury crashes for all road users (drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists) typically drop by 40% and by more than 50% in some locations.

Wolfson, H., 2011
Memorandum on Bike Lanes, City of New York, Office of the Mayor, 21 March 2011

• Cities with high bicycling rates tend to have lower crash rates for all road users.

Marshall, W., and N. Garrick, 2011
Evidence on why bike-friendly cities are safer for all road users, Environmental Practice, 13, 1

• The majority of bicycle-vehicle crashes are not a result of environmental factors, eg. darkness, fog, or rain.

Schramm, A., et al., 2008
How much does disregard of road rules contribute to bicycle-vehicle collisions? in Proceedings of high rish road users- motivating behaviour change: what works and what doesn’t work? National Conference of the Australian College of Road Safety and the Tra

• A survey of 1,600 cyclists from Texas revealed that 70% of riders felt bicycling is dangerous in terms of traffic accidents, but only 21% thought it is dangerous in the context of crime.

University of Texas at Austin News, 2008
“State Bicycle Survey Reveals Danger Concerns, Cycling Perceptions”

• Major streets without bike facilities are where the most bike crashes happen, followed by minor streets without facilities, bike paths, and then bike lanes.

Moritz, W., 1997
Survey of North American bicycle commuters: Design and aggregate results, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 1578, 91-101

• Bicycle safety improvements attract proportionately more people to bicycling than automobile safety improvements (i.e. a 10% increase in safety results in a greater than 10% increase in the share of people bicycle commuting).

Noland, R., 1995
Perceived risk and modal choice: Risk compensation in transportation systems, Accident Analysis & Prevention, 27, 503-521

• Between 2007 and 2008, overall bicycle use in Portland, Oregon increased 28%.

City of Portland Office of Transportation, 2008
Portland Bicycle Counts 2008

• In Portland, OR, 2008 total traffic fatalities were the lowest in recorded history, with only 20 total fatalities, none of them cyclists. 2008 car, pedestrian, and cyclist fatalities were all at all-time lows.

Ciy of Portland, 2009
2008 Fatality Summary

• The more cyclists there are, the safer cycling is.

Jacobsen, P., 2003
Safety in numbers: more walkers and bicyclists, safer walking and bicycling, Injury Prevention, 9, 205-209

• Even though 85% of Amsterdam residents ride a bike at least once a week, only 6 or 7 cyclists are killed in traffic accidents every year.

City of Amsterdam, 2003
in “Cycling to sustainability in Amsterdam,” Buehler, R., and J. Pucher, Sustain, 21, Fall/Winter 2010

• Higher actual crash risk increases perceived crash risk, while higher perceived crash risk is negatively associated with actual crash rates.

Cho et al., 2009
The role of the built environment in explaining relationships between perceived and actual pedestrian and bicyclist safety, Accident Analysis & Prevention, 41, 692-702