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Final 12 months was the deadliest 12 months for cyclists in New York Metropolis since 1999, in line with new knowledge from the town’s Division of Transportation. A lot of the 30 cyclists who died in 2023 have been driving electrical bikes, which have proliferated on metropolis streets lately. A complete of 23 folks died driving e-bikes, which is greater than double the earlier report for e-bike fatalities.
Critical accidents amongst cyclists went up final 12 months as effectively, in line with preliminary knowledge compiled by the Division of Transportation. A complete of 395 cyclists have been severely injured, together with 79 who have been driving e-bikes. That’s about 50 extra severe accidents than the earlier 12 months.
Regardless of this uptick, the speed of bicycle owner fatalities and severe accidents as a share of all bike journeys has been trending downward for a few years, suggesting that driving a bicycle in New York Metropolis has turn into safer over the long run. As of 2022, the speed of deaths and extreme accidents was about 16 per 10 million bike rides, in line with the preliminary knowledge — down from about 34 per 10 million rides a decade earlier.
Traditionally, most individuals who’ve died driving bicycles in New York Metropolis have been killed in collisions with vehicles and vans on streets that didn’t have bike lanes, and that was the case final 12 months as effectively. Based on a New York Occasions evaluation of preliminary police experiences concerning the 30 deaths, a lot of the cyclists who died in 2023 collided with cars in areas with out bike infrastructure, no matter the kind of bike they have been driving.
The rise in electrical bike deaths doesn’t seem like the results of a rise in e-bike ridership, at the very least not fully, in line with the Division of Transportation. And though probably the most seen e-bike customers in New York could also be supply employees and Citi Bike riders, the bulk of people that died on e-bikes final 12 months have been neither. Just one supply employee died from an e-bike crash, in line with the division, and 4 folks died utilizing electrical Citi Bikes, in line with Lyft, which owns the bike share program.
There was one issue that contributed to final 12 months’s spike in e-bike deaths which will counsel a shifting dynamic on the highway: almost a 3rd of the e-bike riders who died crashed or fell with none obvious interference from a car or pedestrian.
Solo bike accidents usually are not a brand new phenomenon, however the seven e-bike riders who died this fashion final 12 months characterize a big enhance over earlier years, stated Vincent Barone, the press secretary for the Division of Transportation.
The division doesn’t know what’s behind this spate of deadly solo accidents, however is in search of methods to enhance security and hold tempo with the speedy adjustments e-bikes have delivered to the town’s streets, Mr. Barone stated.
“We now have been updating our avenue designs with inventive new options, similar to wider bike lanes that higher accommodate conventional and electrical bikes, in addition to our academic outreach and enforcement approaches to higher replicate the swift and dramatic adjustments in expertise,” he added.
The velocity of e-bikes might be an element, as might rider inexperience, stated Sara Lind, an government director at Open Plans, a bunch that advocates “livable streets.”
“There could also be a studying curve that some first-time e-bike riders aren’t ready for,” Ms. Lind stated. “It’s very doable that that studying curve, mixed with the velocity of the bike, exacerbates already complicated or chaotic situations. Navigating a pothole or a abruptly blocked bike lane is extra harmful at the next velocity, emphasizing much more the necessity for higher infrastructure as extra folks use e-bikes.”
Final November, the Division of Transportation and Lyft introduced a plan to cut back the highest velocity of electrical Citi Bikes to 18 miles per hour, down from 20. E-bikes, underneath the town’s classification, are any battery-powered bicycles which have pedals and a velocity of 25 miles per hour or much less.
Whereas the deadly solo e-bike accidents might sign new dangers on the highway, a lot of the bicycle owner deaths final 12 months mirrored longstanding points that the town has struggled with: collisions with cars on roads with out bike infrastructure.
The general public who died in site visitors final 12 months have been both in accidents with cars or have been driving in a single. Of the 102 pedestrians who died in site visitors, solely two died in collisions with e-bikes, in line with the Division of Transportation; the remaining have been hit by vehicles and vans.
Among the many cyclists who died in a collision with an vehicle, most have been hit by vans, like S.U.V.s, pickups, bigger field vans or tractor-trailers. Total, vans have been concerned in half of final 12 months’s 30 bike deaths. In at the very least six of these 15 incidents, the bicycle owner was killed by a truck that was turning at an intersection — normally making a proper flip.
In a single crash, which occurred at about 11:30 a.m. on Could 1, Adam Uster, 39, was driving a conventional bicycle, heading south in a motorcycle lane on Franklin Road in Brooklyn, when he was hit by a flatbed truck because the truck turned proper at an intersection.
As a result of they sit excessive up and have extra blind spots, truck drivers typically can not see cyclists, who can get trapped between the vans and curbs or parked vehicles, Mr. Barone stated. The town’s bike lane designers have been working to handle this concern, he stated, with fixtures at intersections that drive drivers to show extra slowly, rubber velocity bumps and different measures.
Mr. Uster was one of many few cyclists who was driving in a motorcycle lane when he was killed final 12 months. Greater than two-thirds of the cyclists who died in site visitors in 2023 have been on roads that didn’t have bike lanes, in line with the Division of Transportation, and at the very least two cyclists have been on roads with “sharrows,” that are highway markings indicating that vehicles and bicycles should share a lane. Critics say these markers usually are not sufficient to guard cyclists.
“Paint isn’t safety,” Ms. Lind stated. “Bodily protected bike lanes are what really hold cyclists protected.”
Sarah Schick, 37, was killed final 12 months whereas driving on a highway with sharrows. Ms. Schick was driving an electrical Citi Bike on Ninth Road in Brooklyn round 7 a.m. in January. She had been driving in a devoted bike lane that had ended and turn into a sharrow lane. After ready at a site visitors mild, Ms. Schick and a field truck each proceeded within the slim lane; they collided, and the truck ran her over.
The town has been portray fewer sharrows lately, Mr. Barone stated, however nonetheless makes use of them between segments of devoted bike lanes.
Final 12 months, the town added 33.2 miles of protected bike lanes, probably the most ever added in a single 12 months, Mr. Barone stated, bringing the entire to 689 miles of protected lanes.
Philip Miatkowski, the director of analysis and coverage at Transportation Alternate options, a bicycle owner and pedestrian advocacy group, stated that solely about 3 p.c of the town’s streets have bike lanes, and that the community is simply too disconnected.
“Oftentimes, there isn’t a protected bike lane that leads all the best way up to the doorstep, so that you’re going to must go off the protected bike path,” Mr. Miatkowski stated. “I feel cyclists will, within the overwhelming variety of situations, take the alternatives to take a protected bike lane whether it is on their manner, and safer, and never locked down or doesn’t have any obstructions.”
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