Street Smart Campaign kicks off with warning about increased crashes

Law enforcement and public officials gathered yesterday to kick off the Street Smart Campaign. In addition to warning pedestrians, cyclists and drivers that those who don’t obey traffic laws will be targeted and ticketed by police (for the next couple of weeks at least) they also released some data on crashes which are up for cyclists and pedestrians.

[I've had this data for awhile and I'm actively working on a post about it, but it's going slow]. Allison Klein's story in the Post often combines cyclists and pedestrians making it hard to tell how things are going for just cyclists, and even though she writes that

Last year, there were 436 bike vs. vehicle crashes in the District that were serious enough for police to respond to the accident, according to city data.

Part of the reason for the increase in people being hit might be that there has been a 68 percent jump in cyclists in the city over the past three years, officials said.

Which is all true, but she fails to report on how many crashes there were before 2010. Here are those numbers for several of the last few years.

1997 - 257
1998 - 253
1999 - 261
2005 - 270
2006 - 293
2007 - 279
2008 - 334
2009 - 353
2010 - 436

So yes, it's been on the climb (injuries look basically the same).

Anyway more to come on this data later - I promise.

In a complimentary story, the Daily Gripe asks readers to map out the more dangerous intersections and in a similar effort, WABA has launched a bike crash tool. 

Last month we attended the DC Council oversight hearing on pedestrian and bicycle enforcement, and needless to say, we learned a lot. But what stood out for us was that there was so much more that we needed to know–about how and where bike crashes happened in the region and more detailed information about the circumstances both during and after the crash.

Coincidentally, there was a very serious crash yesterday morning at 2nd and Constitution, NW that left one adult male cyclist in "life-threatening" condition. Let's hope he pulls through.

Comments

[Bossi]

While ped/bike crash numbers may be up; how do the rates compare?

[Greenbelt]

DC government could help make Capitol Hill safer by keeping the parking enforcement cars from blocking the bike and traffic lanes during rush hour. Bikes and cars swerve into opposing traffic to get around. Or bikes squeeze between them and parked cars and risk getting doored. Last night I had a close call with a car that sped out of a parking space without looking. I think he was scrambling to move his car before he got a ticket -- the parking enforcement car was blocking the road just behind him. This was at about 6pm.

Is there some reason they can't do parking enforcement on foot? From the sidewalk?

[wd]

need percentages... otherwise useless and scare mongering numbers.

[washcycle]

wd, percentages of what? What we need to know is how many trips were made by bike per year (if you have that info I'd love to see it). And it would also be good to know if reporting of crashes changed in any way, since this is a measure of how many crashes were reported, not necessarily how many happened.

I don't think this info is useless nor do I see it as scare mongering.

[JeffB]

Could some of the bike crash numbers be simply due to:
a) Increased willingness on the part of cyclists to report such incidents (when in the past they would not)

b) Increased willingness on the part of police to respond to such incidents (when in the past they would not)

Would just counting how many times a cyclist was taken to the hospital be a better gauge?

[washcycle]

yes, yes and maybe.

[oboe]

@Greenbelt,

Bikes and cars swerve into opposing traffic to get around...

Why are the bikes forced to swerve into oncoming traffic to get around a car parked in the bike lane. Don't they just merge into the "normal" traffic lane? A pain, but not anywhere near as dangerous as being forced into an oncoming lane...

[Greenbelt]

Oboe, fair enough -- maybe a bit of exaggeration. They typically block most of the bike lane and part of the traffic lane. My problem is that cars behind the back up get ticked off by the delays if they can't squeeze by partly in the opposite lane, and when drivers get pissy they get more aggressive on the bikes.

I have some sympathy for local residents who want enforcement so outsiders can't poaching too heavily on those free two-hour spots. And granted it's a minor annoyance in the grand scheme. But rush hour lane blocking just seems unhelpful, when it seems like walking the rounds would also work, or limiting enforcement to non-rush when there are fewer cars out.

[JeffB]

Why do parking enforcement offices needs cars anyway? Isn't their job conducted on foot?

If they require transportation to get from one area of the city to another I think that's called Metro, Metro Bus, Circulator, or even CaBi.

Couldn't DC buy a bunch of CaBi memberships to use to get around?

[Richard Layman]

FWIW, I doubt that appropriate accident data is not being collected. It is as part of the FHWA Highway Safety program, and is paid for by the US DOT.

The issue is how the police department is collecting the data, what access is being provided, and how it is being analyzed in association with DDOT and DCOP in order to address systematic issues.

Note that the Gazette had a piece about the City of Laurel doing this:

http://www.gazette.net/stories/03242011/laurnew170256_32541.php

I don't know how the advocacy community interacts with the traffic section of the crime data/analysis/research section of MPD.

Obviously, the interaction needs to improve.

[Richard Layman]

JeffB -- it doesn't work to use bikeshare bikes for an 8 hour shift.

But converting a goodly part of the fleet to bicycles and/or electric bicycles makes sense.

On WV Ave. is the fleet management div. parking lot and it is a sea of those cars.

For asset management and cost reasons it makes sense to rightsize the use of motor vehicles in the conduct of city business.