It’s not your imagination.
Newly released government stats show America’s roads really are getting more dangerous.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, traffic fatalities shot up 7.2% nationwide last year, the largest increase since Lyndon Johnson was president.
The total of 35,092 is still significantly lower than 2006, when 42,708 people died on American streets; however, this is the first year to defy the downward trend that has followed ever since.
Authorities say the increase is due at least in part to a 3.5% increase in vehicle miles traveled, which represents the largest increase in VMT in 25 years, spurred by lower gas prices and increased employment.
One in three fatalities involved drug driving or speeding, while one in ten involved distracted drivers.
Meanwhile, pedestrian deaths were up 9.5%, while bicycling fatalities increased a whopping 12.2% — both at the highest levels since the ‘90s, erasing two decades of safety gains.
That works out to an average of 96 people killed in traffic collisions every single day — more than two of whom were traveling by bicycle.
A genuine commitment to implement Vision Zero can’t come soon enough.
Or strongly enough.
………
Today’s common theme is follow-ups to a number of recent news stories.
Cycling in the South Bay writes about the NFL Network’s Heath Evans, one of several recent anti-bike tweeters, who actually had the courage to show up and apologize. And turned out to be a pretty decent guy.
Mountain bikers call BS on a Forest Service investigation that a bike pedal scraping a rock caused a forest fire near Mammoth Lakes.
A Toronto bike advocate concludes the Canadian senator who complained bike lanes were turning the city into a third world country is out of touch. To say the least.
Twitter users respond brilliantly to a recent misleading article suggesting London bicyclists are ignoring the city’s new bike superhighways.
………
Another day, another new leader in the Vuelta, and this time, by a wide margin.
America’s last remaining Tour de France winner claims to have developed a new process to dramatically cut the cost of carbon fiber. Let’s hope that means cheaper bike frames down the road.
………
Local
Richard Risemberg says the new Expo Line bike path isn’t just fragmented, it’s demented.
LAist hears from Angelenos who live carfree; most cite less stress as the primary benefit to traveling the city without the seemingly requisite cars; Kimpton Hotels tackles the same subject for travelers visiting California.
Bike Walk Burbank will hold their annual meeting on Sept. 7th.
State
The Newport Beach Police Department warns about an increase in bike thefts.
Evidently, drivers break the law, too; San Diego police list the leading offense drivers are ticketed for as speeding, followed by disobeying traffic signals and driving without a license. So evidently, bike riders aren’t the only ones who roll stops and red lights. Despite what this commenter has to say.
San Diego bicyclists take a moonlight ride in their undies.
Rancho Santa Fe announces plans to move and elevate El Camino Real, while converting it a complete street with bike lanes and sidewalks.
Moreno Valley police blame the victim after a teenage bike rider is left lying in the road by a hit-and-run driver, saying he rode through a red light.
Talk about burying the lede. A Thousand Oaks cyclist was apparently chased down and struck by a road raging driver, in a case the police are investigating as an assault with a deadly weapon, although the Ventura County Star insists on treating it as a hit-and-run.
A San Francisco man is under arrest for stabbing two strangers in the head with a screwdriver on a BART train, then making his escape by stealing a bicycling at knifepoint.
Sacramento is planning to make major changes to downtown streets to improve safety for bike riders and provide transportation alternatives in anticipation of a boost in population.
National
A conservation writer looks at the science behind cycling’s enormous gender discrepancy. Which you could probably have figured out on your own.
Alta Planning’s Mia Burk says the biggest change over the last 20 years is that active transportation has become mainstream.
Police in Anchorage AK are looking for a bike rider who has pepper sprayed at least four people.
Win your third consecutive gold medal, and maybe Boise ID will name a park after you, too.
More anti-bike sabotage, as someone tossed tacks on the route of an Illinois crit; eight riders luckily escaped serious injury in a pileup caused by flats.
A Minnesota letter writer says that despite complaints from some people, a busy street that recently underwent a road diet has never been safer, and the bike lanes are used year round.
In a strange case from Minnesota, a man on an motorized-assist bicycle was the victim of a fatal hit-and-run; a similar bike was found at the same location the next morning, but police suggest it’s just a coincidence. Evidently, people in Minnesota just happen to leave bicycles like that lying around for no apparent reason all the time.
Cincinnati’s Red Bike may be the country’s most profitable bikeshare system.
Players from ten states converge on Memphis for a laid-back bike polo tournament.
International
Officials in Matamoros, Mexico, and Brownsville, Texas are planning to link the cities with a cross-border bike path. Maybe they can build a tunnel through Trump’s wall if he gets elected.
A new Canadian study shows having bikeshare stations nearby boosts property values up to 3%.
An English city belatedly realizes that they didn’t actually ban bikes from eleven streets, but only restricted the hours bicyclists could ride in pedestrianized areas. And can’t decide on who’s supposed to enforce it.
Paris ups the ante on open streets, banning cars from the entire city for one glorious day next month.
A New Zealand website says e-bikes aren’t cheating.
Caught on video: After an Aussie cyclist flipped off the truck driver who nearly ran him off the road, the driver got out of his cab to repeatedly threaten the rider.
Now that’s more like it. Japan is considering requiring car makers to include safety features to protect bike riders in crashes, including possible changes to the upper parts of vehicles. That’s because bike riders sit higher than pedestrians, and tend to strike the hood and windshield of cars in a crash. Although the better solution is not to hit them in the first place.
A Malaysian cyclist offers the fine points of using a bicycle to solve the first mile/last mile transit connections. Most of which would apply here, as well.
Finally…
Regardless of how annoying it is when drivers honk at you, please try to keep your pants on. Now that’s what I call a fat bike.
And your helmet may not protect you from a speeding car, but it could save you from a leaping stag.
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