North Texas Vehicular Cyclist has a good view of comparative danger (measured in fatalities) around Texas and Portland. If you look at a more global level, I can't see a lot of leverage gained by spending ever increasing amounts on bicycle facilities. It might be possible to buy safety from facilities spending, but the data says the spenders don't know how to do that.The horizontal line is a linear mathematical "best fit."
3 comments:
I'm a sucker for a good chart or graph. Thanks Steve. True separate facilities aren't happening where I live, but the bike lanes are coming on strong...
Let me get this straight if more money is spend on facilities, then fatalities should decrease. The "best fit" line should slope down to the left, instead it's flat. Therefore facilities do not achieve greater safety.
Paraphrasing the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan “The issue of facilities could benefit from a period of benign neglect.”
One cannot tell from the graph whether the lack of payoff is due to bad design or other factors. Certainly it suggests that we're not getting good value from our tax dollars.
Looking at the data many different ways, I was unable to tease any validation that spending money on bike facilities increases safety.
On the other hand, spending money on bike lockers & racks DOES make it easier to find a safe place to lock up your bike or use it for multi-mode commutes. No graph needed for that!
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