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Man, it bothers me so much that the numbers around the car aren't aligned to those on a clock! So close . . .

But at least they're in order, whereas the bike goes 1 - 2 - 4 - 3. Damn cyclists always have to be different.

Thank you for this link. Yes the statistics published here are easy to misconstrue if you don't look closely. To be meaningful, the denominator really should be the total number of riders, not the number of injured riders. Of course, that data would have been a little tougher to come by...

scoot, I think that's a different piece of information (albeit a perhaps better one). This piece might be telling us that cyclists riding outside the bike lane are hit at a lower speed, or with less impact, than those hit elsewhere. Cyclists in the bike lane are probably more often involved in doorings, and that might explain why their injuries are more severe.

But, without knowing the rate of injuries, it would be imprudent to make any changes based on this piece of information. By itself, it is interesting but not useful. Combined with the rate of injuries it would be very useful.

To me, another interesting slice would be to include whether there are parking spaces directly adjacent to the bike lane, cycletrack, or general traffic lane. I feel very safe using a bike lane if there are no parked cars next to me (calvert st bridge), but I only use a bike lane next to parked cars when I am hill-climbing or passing traffic. The danger of getting doored, clipped by a car being driven out of its spot, or having a person pop out from behind two cars is just too much.

I think if the data was sliced by "cycling along parked cars", the results may be less surprising.

There are so many ways this data could be skewed. For example, there could be 20x more bicyclists riding in the bike lane than riding outside of it.

Funny someone in DC should comment about NYC's cabs per capita. NYC population / medallions = 616.4; DC population / cab licenses = 104.6. DC has six times as many cabs per capita! (Add in limo licenses, and it's probably even worse.)

Manhattan alone? Maybe you have a case.

The ratio of cabs to cars on the road is what you notice though; there are times in NYC (Manhattan, yes) that the street seems to be filled with nothing but cabs, and they're a less common menace here.

@freewheel, the number of cyclists using a facility shouldn't have any impact on the ratio of severe crashes to total crashes. It would just increase the number of both.

I think NYC cab medallions are so valuable that a medallioned taxi is never sitting parked. Whereas a licensed driver definitely sleeps (soemtimes while driving). So medallions to licenses probably isn't an accurate representation of the cabs on the road per capita ratio.

Also, DC cabs are manufactured without turn signals, making them less noticeable. True story.

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