Accident Analysis for Bicycle Safety

Disenchantment with automobile as the sole means of individualized transportation and a growing concern for environmental problems of pollution and congestion have led to serious consideration of other alternatives. As a result, the bicycle ha s recently emerged as a viable alternative along with innumerable variations of public transit schemes and the popularity of this inexpensive, quiet, healthful, and nonpolluting means of individualized transportation is increasing. With the increasing use of bicycle as a new mode of transportation, the concern for bicycle accidents also is increasing. An analysis of bicycle accidents in the city of Milwaukee over the past several years, as depicted in Figure 1, shows a reversed trend of increase in accidents in the recent years. Thus it is very important that more information on the characteristics and cause of bicycle accidents be generated to enable the planners and engineers to provide safe facilities for bicycle traffic and this paper strives to contribute towards meeting this need by presenting an analysis of all the bicycle accidents that occurred in Milwaukee in 1971 and 1972