Topic: cycling safety
I love the serendipity of Google. I frequently find interesting things I had no idea I was looking for at the time.
Case in point: I was at my work researching the phrase "safety in numbers" in connection with elder abuse when I stumbled upon this interesting counterintuitive tidbit: As the number of cyclists and pedestrians increases in an area, the incidence of car-bike and car-pedestrian accidents goes down. That's right, down!
Researcher Peter Jacobsen said the result was unexpected and speculated that "motorists adjust their behavior in the presence of people walking and bicycling."
Here's the irony of this finding: Many folks don't ride because they don't feel safe on the road, but if more of them did ride, we'd all be safer!
The article is entitled "Safety in numbers: more walkers and bicyclists, safer walking and bicycling." It was published in the journal Injury Prevention in 2009. Click here to view an abstract.
