The city's expanding bike network is paying dividends -- boosting the level of cycling and making streets safer in the process. Snagged from the latest issue of TA's StreetBeat, this graph is a great illustration of the "safety in numbers" effect identified by researcher Peter Jacobsen in a landmark 2003 paper published in Injury Prevention. The stats in New York reinforce Jacobsen's body of evidence that the more bicyclists and pedestrians are out on the street, the safer biking and walking becomes.
"Safety in numbers" also explains why the U.S. has such a high rate of cyclist injuries and fatalities compared to countries like the Netherlands and Denmark, where biking is much more common. And it's pretty much Exhibit A when it comes to proving the folly of "safety campaigns" like the one currently underway in Savannah, which Sarah wrote about in her post today and which we see our beloved LAPD do on a regular basis downtown and in Mid-Wilshire. But the sad reality is: when you fine pedestrians or otherwise discourage walking, and you only make streets less safe.
(This story was slightly modified from its original post by Damien Newton.)
Ben Fried started as a Streetsblog reporter in 2008 and led the site as editor-in-chief from 2010 to 2018. He lives in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, with his wife.