TheWashCycle

Cyclists Deaths Up, Injuries Way Up, According to NHTSA report

The NHTSA released the latest Traffic Safety Facts report and bicycle fatalities were up 2 percent. The Post has a statement from LAB

Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists, pointed to the competition for road space and distracted drivers as causes for the uptick in fatalities.

Clarke said the number of bike deaths has fluctuated over the years.

"While the increase is regrettable, it hasn't set off any alarm bells," Clarke said. "We're not in the same situation as the motorcycle community, where there's been a steady increase."

Digging deeper in the fact sheet. Deaths among the poorly named Pedalcyclists (includes people on bikes, trikes, unicycles, big wheels etc...) group is up 2.1% and injuries are up a shocking 21% between 2007 and 2008.

What's missing in the fact sheet is the change in bicycle miles traveled. A lot of news reports last year pointed to empirical evidence that cycling was on the rise. So if bicycling miles doubled and deaths went up by 2.1% then that might be a good sign. But if miles traveled stayed flat, that would be bad news. The NHTSA do a good job of breaking down automobile deaths and injuries by VMT, but they don't provide any sense of the denominator for any other class. Nor do they provide helmet stats, cyclist alcohol stats or number of crashes - like they do for auto crashes (for auto crashes they give seat belt data but not helmet data obviously).

There is a report that goes withe the fact sheet - (here's the 2006 one). What the report adds is to break down deaths as a percentage of the population, by age and sex; by location (only half as often in intersections than in nonintersections - page 149) and deaths by time of day. They report they types of vehicles that kill cyclists - mostly passenger cars and light trucks. They also track causes (related factors) but they don't seem to tell us which person - cyclist or driver - was responsible. For example, the #1 related factor is "Failure to yield right of way" but we don't know who failed to yield, so that's less useful than it could be.

You can find some alcohol information in third report "Bicyclists and Other Cyclists."

In 33 percent of the crashes, either the driver or the cyclist was reported to have a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 grams per deciliter (g/dL) or higher. Lower alcohol levels (BAC .01 to .07 g/dL) were reported in an additional 10 percent of crashes. Over one-fourth (31%) of the pedalcyclists killed had a BAC of .01 g/dL or higher, and nearly one-fourth (25%) had a BAC of .08 g/dL or higher.

But we don't know what percentage of drivers has a high BAC (more than 8% and less than 33%). It also reports fatalities by state. There's also a pedestrian report.

Regardless of the change in deaths per BMT, which is unknown, I think everyone would like to see fewer deaths and would agree that the increase in injuries is somewhat alarming (it's higher than it's been since '98 but still well below the levels in the 80's).  

July 2009 Arlington BAC Meeting Notes

I don't attend these, so this is from the minutes, and is probably incomplete and possibly wrong.

Ben Yatt, a rising high school junior in Arlington County presented his plan (including blue prints) to place air pumps at strategic places along bike paths - like the one pictured from the W&OD trail - as part of his Eagle Scout Project.  The committee offered advice and considerations and endorsed the idea.

Trail Maintenance issues – Re-paving is happening in two spots along local trails. Also the BAC continues to identify locations where roots are bulging beneath trails.

Chris Hamilton, Chief of Arlington County Commuter Services, spoke about the initiatives county members are taking:

          Initiative regarding biking in Arlington.
·         Dennis Leach, the transportation director, wants to expand the bike community.
·         A ~25-person meeting July 14th with county representatives (Mark Blacknell to attend representing the BAC) will discuss best practices, issues, and model cities such as Portland.
·         This group needs to prepare to brief Jay Fisette; BAC’s support is needed.
·         This will re-prioritize the board’s priorities to get biking #1.
·         The County Staff will be making the decision.

Coming Events:

September 14 joint meeting with Alexandria Ped-Bike Committee:

o   A rough agenda includes:
§  Arlington/Alexandria Community Bike Ride 2010
§  DASH buses lacking bike racks
§  Marking the route from the Shirlington overpass to the Wayne Anderson Trail.

§  Communicate each group’s priorities

October 17th Bike DC/Arlington ride update:

o   There is as proposed route, budget, and contractor and will be official in 1 week.
o   Proposed route starts in DC, ends in Crystal City and includes the GW Parkway. [WC: This would be big, considering that biking on the Parkway is against the rules. It was only 11 years ago that Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt halted a planned car-free day on 11 miles of the Parkway.]
o   BAC agreed to help with communicating the ride to the community.
o   An Arlington-exclusive ride was proposed. The topic is tabled until November’s meeting.

Mark Blacknell reported on the recent death of an Arlington cyclist.

BAC members reported from the crash site that the green light for bikers only last 5-6 seconds. Whether this was a crash factor or not, it’s a concern for biking safety in the county. Mark has not gotten investigation updates but will forward any information to BAC. The BAC has requested that  Ashley Robinson, the BAC's new police liaison to speak to this topic. The BAC will write to Wayne Wentz, Arlington's chief traffic engineer, asking if it is possible to reprogram loop timings so that bikes get more time.

County Staff report and issues

Trail Counts:

·         Numbers were gratifying (many were up since the May count) but volunteer numbers were low.
·         The next count is the official yearly count: September 10 and 12, 2009.

Lyon Village Switchbacks (The S of Injury)

·         High-friction surface coating is expensive (but yes, cheaper than medical bills).
·         A representative in Richmond may be able to help secure funds as a “crash-reduction measure.”
·         Formal records of “crash and burns” would be useful. Send these stories to David Patton at dpatton@arlingtonva.us

·         Contacting local hospitals on their bike accident numbers may be useful, too.

Columbia Pike Form-Based Code bike parking standards:

·         The issue has been postponed with the Form Based Code Working Group.
·         Eric Bootsma is reviewing possible code changes.
·         The BAC consensus was to ask for Class 1 parking (locked room or cage) in the buildings and agree to fewer racks outside. Class 1 was left out when the Form Based Code was drafted, and the number of required outdoor bike racks was excessive (one every 60 feet).

Arlington Transportation Enhancement awards deallocation risk.

·         December 1st deadline for Federal Transportation Enhancements Awards.
·         There is no deallocation risk at this time.
·         Metro bike parking at Ballston and Clarendon are in the works.
·         The shovel-ready list will also be used to select projects.

Photo by M.V.Jantzen

Alice Swanson Anniversary

I missed this earlier in the week, but Wednesday was the 1 year anniversary of the death of Alice Swanson. Her tragic death led to a Ghost Bike ceremony, a WABA meeting with the police and eventually the Bicycle Safety Enhancement Act of 2008. It did not lead to charges against the driver [I promise to write about this once I get permission from the family].

There was a small ceremony on Wednesday night, express night out writes. One member of the Real World cast even left a message.

Lots of Crashes for the Famous (and the not famous too)

First there was the Matt Lauer, which I hadn't mentioned because I figured if you cared, you knew.

But since then UConn men's basketball coach Jim Calhoun broke five ribs after hitting a pothole during a charity ride. Texas Governor Rick Perry broke his collarbone while mountain biking. Locally, actress Carla Harting was hit by a car while riding her bike near the Jefferson Memorial on May 31 (I don't know anymore than that). She suffered compound fractures in her left femur and tibia and was unable to continue performing in her show at Arena Stage.

And, most tragically, former Kansas Athletic Director Bob Frederick, died from massive head injuries after hitting a pothole.

An accomplished cyclist, Frederick was riding on a city street in Lawrence, Kan., near the campus Thursday evening when he hit a pothole, flew over the handlebars and struck the pavement. He was taken by helicopter to the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kan., with massive head injuries.

You can report potholes online in the District and Virginia, but I don't know about Maryland.

Related to all this, Joseph V. informed me that a cyclist was hit by a driver (update: the cyclist wasn't hit by a car, but rather hit something in the road and fell) yesterday morning, a little after 8:00 am at 14th and V NW. The cyclist was being taken away in an ambulance when Joseph showed up. Update: Here's a description from an eye witness

I saw the accident. I did NOT see an SUV hit the cyclist. Instead, it looked like something snagged her front tire, and she and the bike both somersaulted forward several times and she landed really hard. (I’m a cyclist and I know how easily this can happen.) I was driving right behind her in the left lane. The woman immediately behind her in the right lane stopped, as did I, we placed our cars so that she was out of danger from passing traffic, and several people called 911. She was scraped up and in a lot of pain but conscious and with no deep wounds, so I’m hoping there’s nothing more seriously wrong than what will turn into some serious bruises. I honestly saw no SUV anywhere in the area, and I really don’t think she got hit by anything. Just one of those freaky accidents.

I will say this, however — she was not wearing a helmet.

So again, report those potholes.

Clarification of Arlington BAC minutes on death of Cyclist

From David Goodman:

This is a clarification of the Draft Arlington BAC meeting notes which were posted on Washcycle on June 5th, which summarized my report on the police investigation of the death of the Arlington cyclist who was hit by a car on May 8th.
I never said that the police report was "inadequate" or that it had "major deficiencies".  I said that the police report was incomplete and that the investigation was ongoing (and still is).
Also, the fact that the police report did not include witness statements does not mean that there were no witnesses.  I, in fact, mentioned that the investigating officer told me that there were three witnesses, and that all three stories corroborate with each other.  The incompleteness of the story is not the fault of the police or the witnesses, but with the situation itself: Nobody saw this crash as it was about to happen, and the one person who could fill in a lot of that information is dead.  ACPD is still working on piecing together more of the story.
In the meantime, Arlington County bike/ped staff is working with Traffic Engineering & Operations on addressing some important questions that came up as a result of this tragedy.  For instance: Are traffic signals for cross streets with pedestrian-activated extended green phases programmed to allow bicyclists enough crossing time during regular (non-activated) cycles?  Similarly, we're also continuing to work through issues related to automatic bike detection at intersections.

David J Goodman - RA, AICP

Bicycle & Pedestrian Programs Manager

2100 Clarendon Boulevard, suite 900

Arlington VA  22201

(703) 228-3709

http://walkarlington.com/

http://bikearlington.com/

June 2009 Arlington BAC Meeting Notes

I don't attend these, so this is from the draft minutes, and are neither official nor complete.

Trail Maintenance Issues -

• Kevin Stalica with Arlington County Parks reported that the center crack in the middle of the Custis Trail in Rosslyn is almost completely filled in.  Only a short section after the asphalt end needs to be completed.  Kevin requested that the BAC mark the tree root bumps with white paint and give him the location of the nearest trail marker.  You can send the information to the Arlington County Trail site at trails@arlinton.va.us .  Arlington County employee David Patton discussed the trail cracks near Lee Highway.  No one really understands why they have occurred.
• BAC member Dwight Hlustick mentioned the flooding on the Four Mile Run Trail under the Columbia Pike underpass.  Kevin Stalica believed this would be taken care of shortly. 
• Dwight Hlustick also mentioned the damaged asphalt on the FMR trail near Glencarlyn Park which is long overdue for repair.
• BAC Chairman Randy Swart brought in an example of the sign he placed at intersection of the Custis Trail and the W&OD.  Kevin is working on a permanent sign.

Spring Events: The ride and ribbon cutting ceremony on May 30th at the Shirlington underpass was well attended.  Three Board members, Congressman Jim Moran, and the Mayor of Alexandria spoke at the ceremonies.  A group also stopped at the new covered bike rack at the Shirlington Bus Terminal for photos.

Mark Kellogg will lead an Arlington loop ride to Shirlington at 4 PM on June 10.  This is an open ride starting from the County Office in Clarendon.  The BAC approved a certificate of appreciation for him on his retirement this month. It will be presented to him at the ride.

The trail across the Wilson Bridge is scheduled to open at 1:00 PM on June 10 6.  Opening ceremonies are at 10:00 PM by invitation only.  WABA is planning rides across the Bridge from various locations.  BAC member Ed Blanton plans to lead a ride from the Shirlington bike shelter at noon.  Check the WABA web site for the rides.

Dedication of Columbia Pike parallel trail: David Goodman with Arlington County will report on this later.

Joint Meeting with Alexandria Ped-Bike Committee: Scheduled for September 14 at 7:30 PM.  The groups are looking for locations. 

October Bike DC/ Arlington Ride - Many people were upset that the Community Bike Ride was canceled this spring.  The BAC will investigate reinstating the Arlington Community Bike Ride next spring with the use of more volunteers.   A subcommittee will work on the project.

Death of Arlington Bicyclist: David Goodman spoke to the investigating officer.  The woman was hit by a car while she was going north on N. Cleveland St across Lee Highway at a traffic light.  According to the driver she was crossing against the light, but no witness was listed in the accident report which appeared to be inadequate.  According to David she had no lights and was wearing dark clothing.  The accident occurred about 2 weeks ago at abut 9:30 at night.  The woman died two days after the accident. There appeared to be major deficiencies in the police report.  BAC Vice-Chair Mark Blacknell will follow up.  He and BAC members Allen Muchnick, Michael Raizen, Erik Bootsma and Randy Swart visited the intersection after the ride and noted that the light stays green for only 5 seconds.

Update: From David Goldman

The police report was incomplete and the investigation is ongoing (as of June 12th).
Also, the fact that the police report did not include witness statements does not mean that there were no witnesses.  I, in fact, mentioned that the investigating officer told me that there were three witnesses, and that all three stories corroborate with each other.  The incompleteness of the story is not the fault of the police or the witnesses, but with the situation itself: Nobody saw this crash as it was about to happen, and the one person who could fill in a lot of that information is dead.  ACPD is still working on piecing together more of the story.
In the meantime, Arlington County bike/ped staff is working with Traffic Engineering & Operations on addressing some important questions that came up as a result of this tragedy.  For instance: Are traffic signals for cross streets with pedestrian-activated extended green phases programmed to allow bicyclists enough crossing time during regular (non-activated) cycles?  Similarly, we're also continuing to work through issues related to automatic bike detection at intersections.

Staff Report and Issues:

Trail Counts: 50 volunteers were used in the last trail counts.  Bad weather kept some of the counts down.  David Goodman handed out the draft results.  The next count would be scheduled some time around July 4.  Counting that week would likely inflate the counts which David said was not a  concern. The availability of volunteers during that week could be a problem, however.

Lyons Village Switchbacks: A crash was reported here on Bike to Work Day.  David Goodman said he has investigated the use of a high friction coating for the switchback.  The coating is already being used by the County at some bus stops including the bus stop on Clarendon Ave. in front of the County Offices. The major purpose of the coating is color for the bus stops.  The high friction coating gets pounded into the road by traffic, losing its high friction property.  This would not be a problem on the Trail where the only traffic is bicycles and pedestrians.  The cost for the installation would be $15,000 to $18,000, but the County does not have the money for the project.  BAC members thought this was short sighted since it is only a matter of time before an injured rider sues the County.  Not putting down the high friction coating appears to increase the County's liability.  County staff will investigate getting bicycle safety funds for the project.  Allen Muchnick asked members to report accidents at the switchback to websites which keep records of accidents.

Randy Swart thought that the BAC should develop a new Web page, having seen the Alexandria site at www.alexandriava.gov/localmotion
David Goodman said they are looking for ideas on how to improve the existing County website.  Eric Bootsma will help in developing some options. He would welcome some help.

Stimulus Money: It is believed that most of the money went for trails down state.

Columbia Pike Form Based Code: The parking standard for bicycles is an issue brought up by Columbia Pike developers.  The Form Based Code (FBC) refers to numbers of bike parking "spaces". When the FBC was created that language was lifted almost verbatim from another document except the word "racks" was substituted for the word "spaces".  Since each rack represents two parking spaces, the FBC has effectively doubled the required parking on Columbia Pike relative to everywhere else in the county.  Early FBC projects seem to show that developments are putting in more bike parking than might actually be used under normal conditions. This is creating problems with sidewalk space.

The developers feel that the standard of one rack for every 60 feet is too rigid and they want to be able to group the racks together.  There is some flexibility allowed by the County in the approval process.  A motion to oppose changing the standard passed by 5 to 1 with 8 abstentions, but the group agreed that a vote like that should not be characterized as a definitive BAC position.

County Staff has since recommended elimination of any reference to the frequency of bike racks. The BAC is unlikely to support this, but might allow for clustering near doors at big box stores.

Alington County ordinances prohibit the use of parking meters for locking up a bike, limiting the available locking spots, and no single stanchion provides the supports for both ends of the bicycle that make the inverted U locks work well.

Park planning at Columbia Pike and Four Mile Run Trail: Barcroft neighborhood has a park project to be funded by Neighborhood Conservation that will include a loop trail for a turnaround.  The neighborhood is asking the County to look at paving the trail with pervious materials.

Cyclist hit, killed in Arlington

The only details I have are from this:

Heidi Hrdlicka, 33, of Arlington County was killed May 12 after a car hit a bicycle she was on at North Cleveland Street and Lee Highway in Arlington.

According to my source, it was a few days after the crash that she died and police are reporting she ran a red light.

Update: Thanks to Allen we have the police news release which gives more information

At approximately 9:42 p.m. on Friday, May 8, 2009, a traffic collision occurred in the 2600 block of Lee Highway. The driver of the vehicle was traveling Westbound on Lee Highway. As the vehicle approached the intersection of Lee Highway and N. Cleveland Street, the driver struck a bicyclist who was traveling through the intersection against the traffic light. The driver had the right of way in the intersection.

The bicyclist, Heidi Dare Hrlicka (sic), 33, was transported from the scene to INVOA Fairfax Hospital where she succumbed to her injuries on May 12, 2009. The investigation is on going.

More on why the Virginia Beach Homicide was not a Crime

Local cycling advocates met with Virginia Beach Commonwealth's Attorney Harvey Bryant about the death of Daniel Hersh.

After spending 2 hours meeting with Mr. Bryant I can safely say that none of us like what we heard but we are all in agreement with his assessment that no charges could be brought against the driver that killed Mr. Hersh. Both reckless driving and involuntary manslaughter charges require "willful intent". Bryant showed us case law and explained what constitutes willful intent. For example, someone that tries to run a red light and kills someone DOES meet the definition of willful intent while someone who runs a red light that they didn't see does NOT meet the definition.

We then asked about lesser charges like the obvious fact that she didn't give him the necessary 2 foot clearance but, again, the law requires that you have to see something to give it a clearance.

So, the bottom line is that without evidence of willful intent or distracted driving there was no way to charge the driver with anything, especially since she claimed she didn't see him. I would also add that in the re-enactment that the police reconstruction team did there was a significant glare from the rising sun at the spot where she hit Dan although I thought from the news reports that the accident happened just before sunrise.

As someone said in the post, "it looks like we need to change the law." If a DC police officer, I just read, is responsible for a collision while on the job - any collision - they have to at least take a driver safety course. That should be the absolute minimum for a collision where there's a fatality.

Insufficient Evidence

I'm not sure what is needed.

Hersh, an avid cyclist on his Sunday morning ride, was apparently following traffic laws by pedaling east in the right travel lane - not the turn lane - on Shore Drive near Starfish Road in the early light shortly before 6 a.m., when a Ford Explorer struck him from behind. He was wearing a helmet and a bright yellow windbreaker with reflective strips, Bryant said.
The driver of the Explorer told police she never saw Hersh, and authorities found no evidence to support potential charges to allege that she hit him willfully or through negligent or reckless driving, Bryant said.

How is "not seeing" a cyclist in front of you, one who is wearing a bright yellow windbreaker, not negligent? She won't even lose her license.

What should be enforced?

David Alpert started a discussion about the new DDOT enforcement program and what should be enforced (of course, "everything" is the answer, but we live in a world of limited resources that we must focus where they'll do the most good). The question is, what is the "good" we want to do. I'm of the opinion that enforcement should push towards safety. As an engineer I like to go to the data.

I only know the cause of four fatalities in DC. They are (1) cyclist hit by overtaking truck, (2) cyclist hit by truck turning from the wrong lane (3) cyclist on the sidewalk hit by turning truck when back wheel jumped the curb and (4) cyclist riding at night without lights crosses against light (there has been one other fatality in DC since I started the blog, but I don't know any details about it). The truck situation is so serious that a few years ago DDOT put together a safety pamphlet for truck drivers. This isn't very much data.

We do have more data and this comes from DDOT's 2004 report "Bicycle Collisions in the District of Columbia: 2000-2002". The data is based on police reports, which are only written if there is an injury or property damage of more than $1200. Over the six year period from 1997-2002 there were 1627 reported collisions involving a bicyclists and 853 of them were in the 2000-2002 period.

There were 900 identified "contributing factors" in these 853 crashes - of which 268 were the helpful "other." The report does point out that of these 268 "other" causes, 111 are likely to be hit and runs, and in a hit and run it is almost always the car that does the running. Drinking was only a factor in 12 collisions and sleepiness in 12 also. Oddly 4 of the crashes involved a cyclist who was listed as "apparently asleep." How does one bike while asleep? (This does make one wonder how valid this data is).

Cyclists were found to be responsible in 31% of the crashes they were involved in - this includes bicycle/bicycle crashes and bicycle/pedestrian crashes. Drivers were deemed responsible in 26% of the cyclist crashes. I'm not sure if this includes the hit and run incidents. I'd like to see who was more at fault in bicycle/motor vehicle crashes. This also includes 10 crashes between bicycles and police vehicles. I wonder who was found guilty in those?

In those 266 times that cyclists were found at fault here are the top reasons:

70 - Failure to yield the right of way to a driver
41 - Cyclist inattention
24 - Stop/Go Light (I assume running)
18 - Improper passing
18/15 - Wrong way riding on a two way street/Wrong way on a one way street
14 - Speeding (Not sure if it means actually exceeding the speed limit or if the reporting officer thought they were going too fast)
12 - Stop Sign (again running)
10 - Failure to yield to a pedestrian or bicycle
9/7 - Defective Brakes/Other defects
7 - Following too close

Let's turn to drivers.

54 - Driver inattention
37 - Failure to yield to a bicycle
28 - opening a door to traffic
26 - Making an improper turn
12 - Stop/Go light
11 - Following too close
11 - Changing lanes without caution
9 - Speeding
6 - Improper backing
6 - Stop sign

If we go to the national figures we get more guidance. Some similar factors in top cyclist-caused accidents are (not in order)

1) Making a left turn from the wrong lane
2) Cyclist failing to yield
3) Wrong way cycling/Making a right turn from the wrong lane
4) Cyclist not visible

And for drivers

1) Failure to overtake safely - by far the largest where fault can be assigned
2) Motorist runs light or stop sign
3) Motorist turns into cyclist

I don't think the national stats include anything on speeding - though they do note that most fatal accidents occur on roads with high speed limits.

From this, I think we can make some decisions about what should be enforced to encourage safety.

For cyclists it would be making a turn from the wrong lane, failing to yield the right of way, wrong way cycling and not having a front light and/or rear reflector.

For drivers it would be failure to pass with the proper passing distance (3 feet), running stop lights/signs and turning from the wrong lane (which would be the bike lane and not turning from the bike lane when one is present). More speeding enforcement would be great too.

Having said that if you want to be contrary, you could ask this:

If cyclists are only involved in an average 270 collisions per year - almost all of them involving a motor vehicle, and pedestrians are involved in an average of 690 collisions a year - almost all of them involving a motor vehicle, and those are but a small portion of the nearly 13,000 collisions per year in DC - most of which are motor vehicle/motor vehicle, on which class of users should an enforcement campaign, with the goal of safety, focus?

[I do recognize that bike and ped involved collisions are probably much more under reported than car/car collisions]

Of course, if you think enforcement should serve goals other than - or in addition to - safety, that's fine too. Keeping people from blocking the box, for example, is about preventing gridlock. You could prefer enforcement that reduces congestion. This would be directed at jaywalking, blocking the box, double parking, illegal parking etc...but not really cyclists so much (at least, nothing I can think of - certainly cyclists using the sidewalks are also guilty of jaywalking at times)

Or you could prefer enforcement that raises revenue - in which case red light and speeding cameras are the way to go.