A new report by a bicycle advocacy group in Los Angeles County found that the vast majority of deadly collisions involving cyclists happened on roads that don’t have dedicated bike lanes.
The report by BikeLA looked at the 26 deadly bicycle fatalities in 2022 to determine common factors between them. The most regular contributing factor in the deadly crashes was a lack of dedicated infrastructure for cyclists, BikeLA said.
The report identified four key factors that played a role in the deadly crashes: posted speed limit for vehicles, multiple lanes of traffic, lack of dedicated bike lanes and poor street lighting.
Among the 26 deadly bicycle-related fatalities, 81% involved at least two of those factors, including the bulk of fatalities happening in areas without bike lanes. In total, 85% of the fatalities happened where there aren’t bike lanes.
BikeLA points to a lack of dedicated infrastructure for cyclists and preferential treatment for vehicles as the main consideration when evaluating these accidents.
The advocacy group says serious investments and a united strategy will be needed to address and prevent future fatalities.
Among those suggestions: lowering speed limits on arterial roadways, converting underutilized vehicle lanes into dedicated bike lanes, improving safety standards for existing and future bike lanes and improving street lights, including upgrading all existing lights to high quality LED bulbs.
Eli Akira Kaufman, executive director of BikeLA, called the findings from the study “unacceptable” and said systemic changes will be needed to make the region safer for cyclists and pedestrians alike.
“No matter how conscientious we are on the road, the infrastructure we rely on must do a better job of supporting our freedom to navigate Los Angeles without fearing for our lives,” Kaufman said in a news release.
Particularly alarming, the organization says, is the concentration of deadly collisions in low-income neighborhoods and areas with a heavy percentage of Black and Hispanic residents.
Kevin Shin, BikeLA’s deputy director, said the disproportionate amount of fatalities in those neighborhoods signifies decades of “disinvestment and racist policies” that have put infrastructure improvements in minority communities on the backburner.
The goal of the report, Shin says, is to encourage lawmakers invest more heavily in bicycle safety and ensure that resources are distributed more equitably among low-income neighborhoods.
To read BikeLA’s 2023 Bicycle Safety Report in its entirety, click here.
The organization’s website also includes an interactive map that shows where the cyclist fatalities happened, including three deadly cyclist crashes that have happened just this year.
