Comment 94375

By kevlahan (registered) | Posted November 06, 2013 at 15:08:33

Some numbers are given in this detailed traffic safety report from 2010:

http://www.hamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/E8EE...

In particular, p 12 gives pedestrian and cyclists injuries and deaths.

There were an average of 269 pedestrian injuries and fatalities per year from 1991-2010 and an average of about 6 pedestrian fatalities per year.

There were an average of about 150 cyclists injuries and fatalities per year from 1991-2010 and 1.5 cyclist fatalities per year.

There were an average of about 20 total traffic fatalities per year, so pedestrians and cyclists make up 38%, which is a big over-representation.

Figure 1.8 shows a fairly significant decline in pedestrian injury rates from 1985 to 1991, followed by a levelling out (overall a decrease by about half). Note that the rate is based on total population, and might be skewed by decreasing rates of walking during this period especially to massive suburban development.

However, in figure 1.6 the total personal injury rates (i.e. dominated by motorists) has gone down by a factor three and continues a downward trend.

A big part of the problem is shown by table 1.10: only 37% of drivers (and 15% of passengers) involved in a collision are injured, compared with 86% of cyclists and 89% of pedestrians. So the key for pedestrian and cyclist safety is to avoid collisions in the first place. Because pedestrian and cyclists are so vulnerable, road design and regulations should be shifting risk away from these users, rather than onto them. Motorists, because of vehicle design, are obviously much safer in a collision, especially at urban speeds.

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2013-11-06 15:36:40

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