Separated bike lanes make cyclists safer, study says [The Globe and Mail]
One of the most ambitious studies of bicycle injuries ever conducted in Canada has reach a conclusion that won’t surprise anyone who rides to work: It is far safer to travel on a physically separated bike lane than on busy city streets.
The research, led by Prof. Kay Teschke of the University of British Columbia’s school of population and public health, involved interviewing hundreds of victims of bike accidents in Toronto and Vancouver, and then studying the location where the accident took place.
The analysis, published in the American Journal of Public Health, shows that a cyclist is ten times as likely to be injured on busy street with parked cars than on a cycle lane alongside the street, separated by a physical barrier.
It is also much safer to bike on less busy local streets, major streets without parked cars, and on bike lanes through parks, the study found. On those routes, the risk of injury is about half what it is on a busy street with parked cars.
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