By Charles Pekow — Crashes “disproportionately” occur in low-income and minority communities, according to a five-year study in New Jersey. To make matters worse, location data for these unfortunate bike incidents tend not to be coded, making it harder to pinpoint problems and develop solutions.
Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
“Cyclist crashes in low-income neighborhoods were more likely to be fatal – a finding that the authors attribute to lower access to bicycle facilities in low-income areas,” says “Pedestrian- and Bicyclist-Involved Crashes: Associations with Spatial Factors, Pedestrian Infrastructure, and Equity Impacts”, appearing in the Journal of Safety Research (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022437523000580).
The authors conclude that while more data is needed, sidewalks and crosswalks appear to lower risks. Better info would help determine where countermeasures would likely help. The researchers couldn’t find adequate data to study about 20 percent of incidents, especially those that didn’t involve an auto. Therefore, the study looked only at crashes that involved motor vehicles and pedestrians or cyclists. More complete info on locations of sidewalks and crosswalks, for instance, would also help.
The study looked at four counties in Southern New Jersey between 2016 and 2020.
