Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Bicycle Safety

Why Helmets Aren’t the Answer to Bike Safety — In One Chart

By Angie Schmitt | Jun 2, 2016 | 95 Comments

Better street design and getting more people on bikes — not blind faith in helmets — are the keys to making cycling safer, recent research has shown. Want a good visual to get the point across? The Toole Design Group made this for you. Of these countries, the U.S. has the highest rate of helmet usage among cyclists — around […]

Insane Comic Books Warn Phoenix Children That Biking Will Kill Them

By Angie Schmitt | Apr 21, 2016 | 54 Comments

Hey kids, the Phoenix Department of Street Transportation has a fun message for you: Riding your bike is likely to result in a gory horror scene. If you don’t wear your helmet, of course. That’s the gist of an over-the-top “bike safety” comic book that has alarmed parents of third and fourth graders in Phoenix. The comic shows […]

Finally, a Little Accountability for State DOTs on Bike and Pedestrian Safety

By Angie Schmitt | Mar 15, 2016 | 2 Comments

In a win for bike and pedestrian safety, the Federal Highway Administration announced yesterday that it will require state transportation agencies to do something they have never had to do before: set goals to reduce bike and pedestrian fatalities, and track progress toward attaining those goals. The news is part of FHWA’s roll-out of several “performance measures” […]

How Cities Clear Snow From Protected Bike Lanes: A Starter Guide

By Michael Andersen | Feb 11, 2016 | 5 Comments

This post is by Tyler Golly of Stantec and Michael Andersen of The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes. As protected bike lanes have spread from city to city across North America, a problem has followed: snow. Most protected bike lanes are too narrow for standard street plows. […]

Study: Sharrows Don’t Make Streets Safer for Cycling

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 14, 2016 | 145 Comments

Sharrows are the dregs of bike infrastructure — the scraps cities hand out when they can’t muster the will to implement exclusive space for bicycling. They may help with wayfinding, but do sharrows improve the safety of cycling at all? New research presented at the Transportation Review Board Annual Meeting suggests they don’t. A study by University […]

What Happened When a Newspaper Became an Advocate for Bicyclists

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 6, 2016 | 6 Comments

In too many cities, newspaper coverage of bicycling has stoked some of the darker aspects of human nature. Opinion pieces about bike lanes tend to cater to the reactionary opposition, goading the trolls of the comments section, where casual death threats are standard fare. But a newspaper in South Florida has taken a very different approach over […]

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