Re: Bourke Street Bicycle Road

In aus.bicycle on 12 May 2008 07:53:11 GMT
Joel Mayes <joel@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> IIRC the plan was for a two way bike path on one side of the road i.e.
> bikes in two direction cars in one. They tried this in the Netherlands
> and bike/car accidents increased by 71% (if my memory serves).
>

http://cycledog.blogspot.com/2008/01/copenhagen-cycling-not-what-it-seems.html

The construction of cycle tracks has resulted in a slight drop in the
total number of accidents and injuries on the road sections between
junctions of 10% and 4% respectively. At junctions on the other hand,
the number of accidents and injuries has risen significantly, by 18%.
A decline in road safety at junctions has undoubtedly taken place after
the construction of cycle tracks. If the figures for the road sections are
combined with those for the junctions, an increase of 9-10% in accidents
and injuries has taken place.

.....The increase in injuries due to the construction of cycle tracks
arises because there are more injuries to pedestrians, cyclists and
moped riders at junctions. There has been an increase of 28%, 22% and 37%
respectively for these three road user groups.

The increase in injuries to women was 18%, whereas there was only a small
rise in injuries to men, just 1%. The increase in injuries is especially
large among females under 20 years of age on foot and bicycle, as well
as female pedestrians over the age of 64. On the other hand, there was a
considerable fall in injuries among older cyclists and children in cars
of both ***.

....From table 1, it can be deduced that the construction of cycle tracks
has resulted in three im****tant gains in road safety: fewer accidents in
which cars hit or ran over cyclists from the rear, fewer accidents with
cyclists turning left and fewer accidents in which cyclists rode into a
parked car. These gains were more than outweighed by new safety problems:
more accidents in which cyclists rode into other cyclists often when
overtaking, more accidents with cars turning right, more accidents in
which cars turning left drove into cyclists as well as more accidents
between cyclists and pedestrians and exiting or entering bus passengers.